GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — As snow falls in West Michigan, hundreds of tickets have been issued to odd-even parking violators in Grand Rapids.

It’s the time of year when you should pay more attention to where you park your vehicle in Grand Rapids.

“I do understand that it can be difficult in some areas of the city where folks don’t have driveways or garages and they rely on street parking. However, we all need to do our part to be courteous neighbors,” said Jennifer Kasper, assistant director of the Mobile GR department.

From Nov. 1 until the start of April, the city’s seasonal odd-even parking rules are in place.

“Odd-even parking correlates with what number your address ends in and the day of the month,” Kasper said. “So, if it’s an odd day of the month, then you’ll need to be parking on the odd side of the street. And if it’s an even day of the month, then you’ll park on the even side of the street.”

The rules apply from 1 a.m. until 6 p.m., which means drivers should think one day ahead.

“You might come from work, and you can park on either side of the street, but kind of once you go to bed, you’ll need to think about what day it will be at 1 a.m. And that’s the side of the street you’ll need to park your car overnight,” Kasper said.

Odd-even parking is in place to ensure streets are passable for snowplows and street sweepers.

“Grand Rapids has some pretty old areas of town. We have some really narrow streets that predated the automobile,” Kasper said. “So, those narrow streets make it difficult if we were to provide parking on both sides.”

So far this season, 471 tickets have been issued to violators. At this time last year, 1,202 tickets were written, Kasper said. A big factor in the numbers is a difference in weather.

“Last year, we got a huge snow dump on Halloween, so right as odd-even parking was into effect. And we really needed to ensure that those streets maintained plow, and obviously we were having to issue a lot more tickets,” Kasper said.

Kasper added that much of the enforcement is based on complaints from neighbors or public works teams.

“We are not doing proactive enforcement unless we are flagged for problematic areas,” Kasper said.

Violating the odd-even parking rules carries a fine of $20.