Vancouver Parking Enforcement

The City of Vancouver Parking Enforcement is the organization that enforces street bylaws, in the City of Vancouver British Columbia.

City of Vancouver Parking enforcement officers, conduct themselves professionally, and go about their duty with high standards. It is unfortunate that this work in often regarded in poor light by those ticketed. Someone has to do this job. Most officers will follow the strict code of conduct set by the City of Vancouver.

Post 2010 Olympics a late night enforcement shift was left behind as a legacy one may call it. A crew of six officers was required to work the six hours (10 pm to 2 am) 7 days a week. There is lots to do for the Thursday, Friday and Saturday night crew. However the crew that works Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday have nothing to do. Even events like hockey and concerts end at 11 pm

How do you enforce parking regulations when:-

1. Meters are free after 10 pm.
2. Nobody is visiting, almost everyone is at home.
3. The bars are empty except for the late night block of 900 Granville Street.

The City of Vancouver would have figured out that this late shift (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday upto 2 am) was a waste of time and money. Had this crew not written any tickets. However someone somewhere probably arrived on a wonderful solution to save the shift, or was the city demanding more revenue? The tax for driving taxi in Vancouver just went up.

Taxi drivers working these shifts soon started getting tickets in the mail. None were served. A majority of these tickets were for the 900 block Granville and 1000-1100 block Mainland. This is the only place there is any life on these slow nights. One particular driver got a prize worth almost 1200 dollars (24+ tickets not a single served). He used to read books, and wait/sleep on the deserted mainland street on these slow nights. Mostly in the passenger zone outside the Goldfish Restaurant. Now ths driver avoids Vancouver and works in UBC, a separate juridisction. Wow!

There were also reports of a Parking Enforcement Officer who was teamed up with a meter repair technician in a pickup truck. They both sat on the 900 block Granville (southbound) for extended periods of time (approximately around 1 AM) writing tickets for taxis as they came and picked up at the Roxy, Republic night clubs. This practice went unnoticed for at least a few weeks. There are no parking meters on the 900 block of Granville. One wonders how many non taxis they ticketed in this stealth operation.

As of today, Vancouver's taxi drivers finally thank their stars, that the ticket onslaught has slowed down somewhat. Not ended completely but slowed down.