Toronto parking fines tripling on Thursday

By News Staff

Parking fines in the city are going up – way up.

In some cases, fines will triple, all in an effort to keep Toronto’s streets moving, Mayor John Tory said.

As of Thursday, parking ticket fines will rise to $150 for the following infractions:

  • blocking sidewalks
  • engaging in double parking
  • standing in TTC zones
  • blocking high-occupancy/reserved vehicle lanes (HOV lanes)

 

Right now, the penalties range from $40 to $60.

“By attaching a real price to blocking lanes of traffic with illegal parking, we will reduce congestion,” Tory said in a statement.

“This is just one more step that we are taking to keep Toronto moving and keep pedestrians safe.”

Tory has made cutting congestion one of his platforms.

However, last fall, the City said it had withdrawn over 880,000 parking tickets, because ticket-holders had been awaiting trial for more than a year.

These infractions are less than three per cent of all parking tickets issued between 2002 and 2014, and even include ones for which a trial request had been submitted or ones where a retrial had been ordered but not scheduled.

The tickets withdrawn represent an estimated $20 million in potential revenue for Toronto – but had trials been conducted for them, the cost to the city for hearing them in court would have exceeded $23 million.

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