Attractions & Recreation

Roadway Events

Road Closures and Road Use Permits / On-Street Construction And Maintenance (OSCAM) Permits

The OSCAM permit is free and grants approval to close a roadway or restrict access. You must know the time and date of your event, the location, the size and scope of your event and any special circumstances that might be required to host your event.

For larger events, you may have to develop a Traffic Accommodation Plan to indicate the area of the closure, the impact on the surrounding area and other details such as parking restrictions, meter hoodings, lane closures, etc. Ask for assistance when applying for your OSCAM permit. Contact 780-442-6458 for more information.

Parades and Processions

Parades, processions and roadway events are regulated under the City Traffic Bylaw 5590. Contact the Civic Events Office at 780-944-7740 for more information.

Traffic Control Equipment

You can rent traffic control equipment (barricades and cones) from the City of Edmonton or any other business that rents such equipment. Order/request the equipment when applying for an On-Street Construction And Maintenance (OSCAM) permit.

Parking Conflicts

Parking may be an issue when selecting your event location, especially in high traffic areas such as downtown. If you require parking restrictions for your event, your request will be reviewed on an individual basis. When selecting your location, also consider how much space you require for set-up and removal of equipment and resources.

Some common conflicts include: metered parking, access to and from parkades, residential parking availability, and loading zones. Parking restrictions may help your event in the first few years however, when areas are overly subjected to parking restrictions, it's difficult to gain community support and approval in following years.

Disruptions To Signal Lights

If your event is a moving event, such as a parade or road race, and you are impacting signalized intersections, you must hire special duty police officers to operate the intersections. By planning your event around signalized intersections, you might reduce costs and ease traffic congestion.

An event that is at a single location may still affect signal timings at adjacent intersections. Adjustments can be made to accommodate your event. Please identify where the signal lights are and where you may affect their operation.

Special Duty Police Officers

If you are organizing a roadway event that goes through signalized intersections or other high traffic areas you may be required to hire special duty police officers to control traffic. Subject to your application review your event may also require police for crowd control and/or security management. Contact Edmonton Police Service at 780-421-3300 or visit the Special Event Policing website.

Volunteers may also be used to provide traffic marshalling or security in some circumstances.

Disruptions to Edmonton Transit System (ETS) Bus Routes

If your event impacts regular ETS service operation and schedules in Edmonton, there may be a cost to you for ETS to modify its' service to accommodate your request. If ETS service can be revised/detoured around your event without the need to add in additional buses or dedicated supervision to maintain frequency and advertised schedules, there will be no additional cost to you. If ETS can't make modifications to regular service without incurring an additional cost to meet your event requirements, this cost will be identified and will be billed to you as part of your overall event cost if your event is approved to proceed.

Public Attendance Options

Depending on the size and scope of your event, you may want to arrange a bus charter (ETS or private company) and an off-site participant/patron parking area and shuttle your attendees back and forth to your event if your site has limited public parking or parking restrictions. The City of Edmonton, through ETS, does offer comprehensive bus charter services with dedicated supervision for a single bus to one hundred plus buses, depending on your event requirements. ETS will assist you with your event attendance planning and cost estimates. But in any event, should you choose to operate shuttle bus services, it must be included in your plans and approved by the City.

For more information:

Civic Events Office

1 Sir Winston Churchill Square
Edmonton AB T5J 2R7

Telephone	780-944-7740
Fax	780-944-0042
Email	Civic.Events@edmonton.ca