Construction truck trumps wheelchair at busy downtown corner
No wonder people are sick and tired of constantly having to get out of the way of construction.
We’ve been writing about the frustration of drivers and pedestrians over the incessant demands to make room for construction that spills into traffic lanes and sidewalks, forcing us all to queue up to get past it.
And the construction vehicles that we found illegally parked on a sidewalk, across from a condo development on Charles St. just east of Yonge St. are a fine example of why so many people are fed up.
We were hiking along Charles St. on Friday when we came across three trucks pulled up on the sidewalk, with one so close to a fire hydrant that pedestrians could barely squeeze past it.
The truck had a parking ticket under its windshield wiper, issued on Mutual St. at 8:37 a.m. It apparently was no deterrent to parking on the sidewalk on Charles St.
In front of that truck was a black pickup with a city-issued “temporary street occupation permit” conspicuously located on the dashboard. But the permit was for “permission to occupy public right of way for permanent repairs to utility cuts” during the Pan Am Games, which ended in August.
The pickup driver was obviously trying to make eight out of two plus two.
Parking on sidewalks is strictly prohibited and can result in a fine of nearly $100, which was apparently of little concern to the construction crew.
After we passed the trucks, we saw a guy in a wheelchair heading toward them who’d have to wedge his chair between the hydrant and the truck next to it. The guy was thwarted and had to turn around.
The wheelchair guy’s inability to get past the trucks rubbed us the wrong way, so we went looking for a parking enforcement officer, and found one just around the corner, on Yonge St.
We told him about the situation on Charles St. and asked if he could please enforce the law by ticketing the offending vehicles.
Sorry, he said, but the trucks are there for a small paving job on Charles St., and have nothing to do with the condo project. They are parked on the sidewalk with the permission of a paid-duty police officer who is in charge at the job site and had authorized them to occupy the sidewalk, he said, adding there was nothing he could do.
We looked for the paid-duty officer and spent half an hour walking up and down the street, waiting around for him. But we never did lay eyes on him.
If he was there, he did a good job of riding herd over the paving job and directing traffic around it without ever revealing himself.
Our interest in the trucks took longer than the allotted time for the paid parking space our car occupied on the other side of Charles St., just west of Yonge St.
Exactly four minutes longer, according the $40 ticket we found on our car, for overtime parking.
Lesson learned? Construction is far more important, even to the police, than pedestrian movement. But woe be to those of us even a few minutes past the limit on their paid parking. What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. To contact us, go to thestar.com/yourtoronto/the_fixer or call us at 416-869-4823 email jlakey@thestar.ca. Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.