In five years, over 10,000 cars have been towed away. Today it can happen to you.

If you haven’t moved your car yet, it may be too late. Now the sidewalks in Oslo will be swept. Check your street here.

Throughout the winter, the municipality has spread more than 25,000 tonnes of gravel in Oslo’s streets.

Now everything will go away.

From Tuesday until May 17, the municipality will wash every street in the city. And if you don’t follow along, it can quickly become expensive.

Run out in your pajamas

With sour wind and barely plus degrees, it’s not exactly a spring atmosphere on Skøyen in Oslo on Tuesday morning. But this is where spring cleaning has started.

Just before 8 o’clock there were seven or eight cars up Gustav Vigeland’s road.

– People came running out in their pyjamas to have the car moved, says city officer in Oslo municipality Assama Munawar.

He has spent the morning contacting car owners who risk being towed away.

– I have no conscience not to try to speak out. We are talking about many thousands of Swedish kroner, he says.

If you have not removed your car before the sweepers arrive, it will be towed. For passenger cars, the bill comes to NOK 5,100.

Throws flower pots and jaws

– It will be much more expensive if we move people’s cars than if they do it themselves, says the road manager in Oslo municipality, Joakim Hjertum.

This is his 17th spring cleaning in the capital. He says that the vast majority of people are happy that the streets will be clean and tidy. But not everyone notices the signs that there is a temporary parking ban in the streets.

– No, so flower pots have come out of windows. People come and clench their fists, and there has been shouting.

Thousands are roped in

Since 2018, the municipality has towed over 12,500 cars in connection with spring cleaning of the streets.

The municipality is therefore asking residents to familiarize themselves with when and where the sweeping begins. Signs must be put up in all streets at least 24 hours before the sweeping begins.

– Towing delays the work and is both expensive and a nuisance for the person who gets the car towed, so we would like to avoid that as far as possible. That is why it is important that everyone who parks along the street pay extra close attention to signs in the street ahead, says press officer Hanne Sofie Fremstad at the Bymiljøetaten to Aftenposten.

The last planned sweeping day is 13 May, but the municipality allows for delays to occur.

Here you can search for your street to see when the sweeping is scheduled:

Just managed to move the car

The driver of the tow truck had already been looking at Katie Toivonen’s car when she came running out to have it moved. She had received a text message from City Officer Munawar.

– I looked out through the curtains and then saw the yellow note on the hood. Then I ran out, she says.

Although she escaped a towing bill of several thousand Swedish kroner, she received a parking fine of NOK 900. It’s still sad.

She says that the prohibition sign has been in the road at least since Tuesday last week. She therefore thought that the parking ban applied last Tuesday. She believes this is a confusing practice on the part of the municipality.

Road manager Hjertum says the signs in the road were hung up by the contractor during Easter week, possibly as early as Tuesday.

– At least it shouldn’t have lasted longer than that, but the parking ban applies today.

Tons of gravel

This winter, the municipality has spread 25,000 tonnes of gravel. It has been a fairly cold winter, and 25,000 tonnes is a lot of gravel.

However, it is not as much as in the 2017/2018 winter season. The municipality then had to use as much as 38,000 tonnes of gravel to prevent the streets from becoming too slippery.

In comparison, the municipality used just under 5,000 tonnes of gravel ten years ago, i.e. in the winter season 2013/2014.

In the overview, you can see how much gravel the municipality has spread over the last ten winters: