The city gave out more than $2 million in snow route parking tickets after January’s major storm
Did 21,508 people not see the “no parking” signs?
After Toronto’s record-breaking snowfall last month, city parking enforcement officers gave out a jaw-dropping number of tickets to drivers parked along designated snow routes.
According to CTV News, more than $2 million worth of parking tickets were slapped on the windshields of 21,508 drivers who defied snow route signs as crews worked to clear the streets.
Related: Another driver thought the Queens Quay streetcar tunnel was a normal road and went right in
The data provided to CTV covers the period between January 15 and 30. The date of the snowstorm was January 25.
The city declared a Major Snowstorm Condition when the storm hit last month and has not yet lifted it. This means it is prohibited to park in a snow route at any time of day or night. (A previously issued Major Snowstorm Condition was already in effect on January 15.)
A city spokesperson told CTV that there is no timeline yet for when the declaration will be lifted. “We do want to remind residents that parked vehicles can interfere with crews’ ability to complete this work quickly and effectively,” the spokesperson said of snow removal efforts.
Toronto Today previously reported that vehicles parked too close to streetcar tracks forced streetcars to stop 308 times between January 25 and February 4.
Related: This data scientist mapped every parking ticket issued in Toronto over the past 16 years
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
