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Street sweeping in the City

Everything you need to know about the program, and when we clean streets in your neighborhood.

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Find out when we clean your street

You can search our online database. If you can’t find your street in the database, try to use a partial spelling (for example: WASH instead of N WASHINGTON). You can also download the whole street cleaning schedule. We also group streets by Public Works district yards, and we may list your street under a different neighborhood.

If you still can’t find your street, please contact us so we can add your street to our database.

Street cleaning during the year

Daytime street cleaning

The Daytime Street Cleaning Program runs from April 1 to November 30 in most Boston neighborhoods. Check the posted street sweeping signs on your street for the schedule and parking restrictions. Daytime street sweeping continues into the winter in the North End, South End, and Beacon Hill. The program stops on December 31 and starts up again on March 1.

Nighttime Street sweeping

We run our Nighttime Street Cleaning Program all year to clean main roads, arterials, and commercial roads. If you don’t see any months on a posted street sweeping sign, parking restrictions are in place year-round.

Sign up for reminders from the City

Search for your street in our database. After you find your street, we will give you an option to sign up for our No-Tow reminder service with your email. If the City’s website or the email we send you is different from the posted street sweeping sign, always obey the posted street sign.

If your car is towed

Finding your car

The Transportation Department handles ticketing and towing for street sweeping.  In most cases, private companies working for the Transportation Department tow your car for parking in violation of the street sweeping regulations.

If you know your license plate number, you can search our online database or call the Boston Police Department at 617-343-4629 to find out which company towed your car. If you don’t know your license plate number, call Boston Police at 617-343-4629, or Transportation at 617-635-3900.

Getting your car

Once you find the private tow company that has your car, you can go and pick it up. Tow operators take cash, as well as debit and credit cards. At most, these companies can charge you:

  • $108 for the tow
  • $35 for each day they store your car, and
  • a fuel surcharge. To find out what the surcharge will be, check the fuel charge factor on the state's website.

How to get your towed car back

More street cleaning information

The fifth week of the month

Streets cleaned every week are also cleaned on the fifth week of the month. If we clean your street every other week, parking restrictions aren’t enforced in the fifth week. Please always check the posted street sweeping sign on the street.

Street Sweeping and rain

We don’t always cancel street sweeping because of rain. Light rain can actually help our sweepers clean the streets. Please check with 311 for information on any street sweeping cancellations.

Holidays and weekends

On some City holidays, we suspend street sweeping during the day, but we still sweep streets at night. On the weekends, we sweep some streets at night. Please always check posted street sweeping signs for information. If you still have questions, please contact 311.

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