Parking tickets getting more unfair in city

As Toronto city council rightfully considers increasing parking violation fines to $75 from $30, it should also fix the unfair residential permit parking rules that vary across the city.

In most of Scarborough, where I live, and North York, parking on residential streets is typically free — for up to three hours. Exceeding three hours risks a $75 ticket. Overnight on-street parking is essentially not allowed for about one million Scarborough and North York residents, even though the city issues on-street parking permits in other parts of Toronto.

One $75 ticket costs more than a month’s permit in areas of the city where permit parking is allowed, which costs between $24 and $70.

Despite being one amalgamated City of Toronto for more than a quarter-century, old rules still follow old boundaries.

Residents, eager to pay the cashstrapped city for a parking permit, are turned away. I have heard from many neighbours how the lack of permit parking has unfairly impacted their family.

Some invite guests to visit overnight for a holiday. If the driveway is full, guests park on the street and awake to a $75 ticket. Stay another night? $150. Tickets sour the occasion, quickly adding up.

Many live in multi-generational homes.

As housing prices skyrocket, families pool resources across generations to buy a home, bringing many adults living together and they may have more vehicles than their driveway allows, so they must park on-street.

Others live in multi-tenant housing, now legal citywide. In most areas, for every six rooms there must be two parking spaces. On average, this is reasonable as most tenants won’t have a car, though some will need to park on-street with no option to request a parking permit, leaving them saddled with frequent tickets.

Even people aiming to live car-lite by relying on carshare services instead of owning their own vehicle are stymied by the lack of permit parking. Carshare operators, without access to street parking, have limited options to locate their vehicles that are easily accessible to the public.

Of course, we must encourage less car dependency. Yet in Scarborough, projects to make streets safer for walking and cycling face political interference, while transit service is slashed or derailed. Those left to rely on cars parked on-street are stuck budgeting for unpredictable numbers of $75 tickets. Is that fair?

To be clear, I am hardly a parking advocate. My career is focused on building sustainable cities — and they should be fairer, too. Allowing permit parking means putting a price on valuable street parking, and transparently laying out a multi-year strategy to increase parking fees amid more investments into transit, cycling, and walking projects will boost public confidence in city hall, while more fairly reaching our climate goals.

Sign this petition to call on city council to make permit parking rules fair for everyone across our city: www.permitparking.ca.