Boston Street Cleaning

Street Cleaning is suspended on the following days:
Mon, Jan 20 2025 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Mon, Feb 17 2025 for Washington's Birthday (Presidents' Day)
Mon, May 26 2025 for Memorial Day
Tue, Jun 17 2025 for Bunker Hill Day

A clean city doesn’t happen on its own. Most Boston neighborhoods operate a daytime street cleaning schedule one day out of the week between April 1 to November 30. In other neighborhoods, it runs from March 1 to December 31. Don’t worry, you don’t have to remember the schedules on top of your head.

Here are general rules to keep in mind:
If your street is cleaned every week, it will also be cleaned on the fifth week of the month during months with five weeks.
Street cleaning still occurs on days when it is raining

It’s important to stay alert for snow emergency updates during the winter months. Once the snow arrives, get used to a few changes to the usual parking rules. If the city declares a snow emergency, you must move your car from the main roads to make way for snow plows.

In general, street cleaning routes and schedules remain the same.

“I saw the street sweeper pass,” isn’t a good enough reason to park your car. Sometimes, one cleaning round won’t do. The street sweeper may come back a second time. There is no law in Boston saving you from a parking ticket just because you saw the street sweeper pass. Always follow the parking signs to avoid troublesome parking tickets.

If you park your car on the street and overnight street cleaning occurs, your ticket will cost $90 dollars. Daytime street cleaning tickets, however, are less expensive and cost $40 which may save you a buck or two. In Charlestown, tickets due to daytime street cleaning cost $90 dollars.

On city holidays, street sweeping is suspended during the day but streets are still swept at night. There are a number of city-wide holidays that suspend street cleaning.

Here are holidays when daytime street cleaning is suspended:
January 1 – New Year’s Day
January 21 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
February 18 – Presidents Day
April 15 – Patriots Day
May 27 – Memorial Day
July 4 – Independence Day
September 2 – Labor Day
October 14 – Columbus Day
November 11 – Veteran's Day
November 28 – Thanksgiving Day
December 25 – Christmas Day