New: residential driveway windrow clearing

A windrow is a pile of snow that gets pushed onto a driveway by a plow as it clears the street. Residents with single, shared and double driveways will get at least a three-metre space cleared in their driveway windrow. No application or registration is required. The City will not clear windrows for condominiums, commercial properties and homes on private roads.

New: citywide winter parking restrictions

To make snow clearing safer and more efficient, the City has introduced a penalty of $150 for those who park their vehicles on the road when the City is plowing and declares a Citywide Winter Parking Restriction.

Vehicles parked on the road can prevent City crews from being able to clear roads and residential driveway windrows, making it difficult for emergency vehicles, public transit and residents to travel.

The City will declare a Citywide Winter Parking Restriction when the City needs to plow roadways. When a Citywide Winter Parking Restriction is declared, on-street parking is not allowed, except in areas identified by signage (e.g. 15-hour maximum). On-street parking on statutory holidays and religious observances is also prohibited. Temporary parking permits and residential paid parking permits will not be issued and current ones will be suspended.

The City will announce that a Citywide Winter Parking Restriction is in effect on its website and on its social media channels. Residents can also sign up to receive an email alert or call 311.

The City’s winter maintenance operations

What the City clears

The City is responsible for clearing snow and ice from City-owned infrastructure. This includes roads, on-street bike lanes and cycle tracks, sidewalks, bus stops, pedestrian crossings, and roadside multi-use trails. Starting this winter, the City will also clear 134,000 residential driveway windrows.

City staff also provide winter maintenance at City facilities including community centres, libraries and select park parking lots, paved pathways and trails. Peel Region is responsible for clearing most regional roads in Mississauga.

City service levels

The City plows snow when five centimeters or more accumulates. If there is less than five centimetres of snow, infrastructure is salted.

The City clears priority infrastructure first. Depending on how much it snows, it can take 12 to 24 hours to clear this priority infrastructure after the snow has stopped:

• Priority roads: routes for emergency vehicles, transit and high-traffic volumes.
• Priority sidewalks: sidewalks located along major roads and bus routes and outside schools, hospitals and long-term care homes.
• Bus stops, roadside multi-use trails, pedestrian crossings and on-street bike lanes.
• Parking lots and entrances connected to City community centres, arenas and libraries.

City crews then move on to clearing residential roads and sidewalks, which are cleared within 24 to 36 hours after the snow has stopped. Residential driveway windrows will be cleared four to six hours after the neighbourhood has received its final round of street plowing.

Residents are reminded that snow clearing will take longer if Mississauga gets back-to-back storms or more than 30 centimetres of snow.

Stay updated

• Visit mississauga.ca/snow to learn more about snow clearing in the city and use the online plow tracker.
• Follow @MississaugaSnow on X for snow-clearing updates.
• Sign up to receive an email alert when a Citywide Winter Parking Restriction is in effect and temporary parking permits are suspended.
• Call 311 (905-615-4311 if outside city limits) for questions related to the City’s snow-clearing operations.
• Follow @PeelPublicWorks on X for snow-clearing updates on regional roads.

 
Mayor Parrish joins Councillor Horneck, Councillor Fonseca, Councillor Hart and Works Operations and Maintenance staff for the launch of Mississauga’s winter maintenance season.

 
Residential driveway windrow clearing equipment.

City of Mississauga snow plow.

The plan will guide the City’s actions, policies and investment in Mississauga’s transit and road network over the next 20 years. As Mississauga continues to grow, there is a need for a multi-modal transportation system that is safe, quick and efficient. The TRIP will guide Mississauga to prioritize transportation infrastructure more effectively, helping people reach their destinations as efficiently as possible, regardless of the mode of transportation they use. It will also help protect vulnerable road users like pedestrians, cyclists and transit users.

Long-term transit network recommendations

The long-term transit network will help grow future transit ridership while providing connections to rapid transit projects currently under construction within the city, as well as to regional transit systems (such as GO Transit) and regional destinations. The recommended transit infrastructure will help reduce transit delays, improve travel time and service reliability.

The recommendations fall into three categories based on how many people are expected to use it, available space and making sure access to transit is equitable. The categories are:

1. Higher order transit: These are the busiest routes where transit solutions like Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) or Light Rail Transit (LRT) run in their own dedicated lanes.
2. Transit-only lanes: These are busy routes where adding special lanes along the curb for buses will help transit move more efficiently.
3. Intersection improvements: For many routes, improving intersections can help make transit more reliable and provide better connections.

Long-term road network recommendations

Roads are necessary for connecting to new development areas, crossing major barriers and moving goods around the city. Building new roads or improving existing roads can also help expand connectivity for transit, walking and cycling. Most road improvements in the plan are intended to accommodate transit priority projects.

Sometimes roads may need to be rebalanced to make room and improve safety for vulnerable road users, like pedestrians and cyclists. This could mean adding a new sidewalk, installing protected bike lanes or adding a left turning lane. Before any changes are made, the City will study the road and ask for feedback from the community to help shape the final designs for the road.

Learn more and read the Transit and Road Infrastructure Plan: mississauga.ca/projects-and-strategies/city-projects/transit-and-road-infrastructure-plan/

Background

In the City’s first Transportation Master Plan, endorsed by Council in 2019, a vision was established that “everyone and everything will have the freedom to move safely, easily and efficiently to anywhere at anytime.” The Transportation Master plan is an overarching guide on the future of transportation in Mississauga.

In 2020, the City initiated a study called the Transit and Road Infrastructure Plan to build upon the vision of the Transportation Master Plan and address two of its action items:

• To update the long-term transit network plan
• To update the long-term road network plan

Quote

“Most people in Mississauga drive as their primary mode of transportation to get around the city. Over time, our transportation system has been built to support travel by car. As the demand in Mississauga grows, we are reaching a physical limit to expanding our road network. We need transit and road improvements to support a growing Mississauga. Having this new Transit and Road Infrastructure Plan in place will help guide us over the next 20 years in prioritizing transit and road infrastructure projects that move people safely, easily and efficiently, regardless if they’re walking, cycling, taking transit or driving. With Council endorsing the Transit and Road Infrastructure Plan, the City will be better positioned to seek funding from the Federal and Provincial governments for future rapid transit projects.” – Sam Rogers, Commissioner, Transportation and Works