As the flakes begin to fall, City of Calgary officials say they are ready for the impending snow season, and plan to improve the parking bans introduced last year.

Manager of maintenance for the city’s roads department Dean Bell said there will be some modifications made to the snow route parking ban.

“After the first snow event in December 2011, we increased the number of signs by 50 per cent based on citizen feedback,” said Bell. “This year we’ve already begun to install more signs to ensure that snow routes are clearly marked and visible to all commuters.”

The parking bans, which can last up to 72 hours on marked routes, were introduced last year to expedite the snow clearing process. Bell said when the two bans were called last year, they did help speed up the clearing process.

“It’s a huge help for us in efficiency,” he said. “The difference between doing those routes with a ban in place compared with a ban not in place is about a 30 per cent decrease in time.”

For more information on snow routes, visit Calgary.ca/snow.

Bike lane clearing:

For the first time, the roads department will be classifying on-street, marked bike lanes as Priority 1 routes, meaning they’ll be cleared much sooner.

Bell said this move is part of the city’s overall strategy to support alternate modes of transportation.

“What that should do is get them cleaned up about 24 hours earlier than they would have been in the past.”