One man’s crusade to warn drivers about ticket traps
The city took on the wrong guy when Robert Holland’s car was tagged for parking at one of the infamous ticket traps on University Ave.
He has since been on a crusade to stop the city from reaping undue rewards from hapless drivers who park in front of two fire hydrants on University, which are hard to see from inside a vehicle.
For the past week, Holland has spent time hanging around the two hydrants — one just north of Queen St., the other south of Dundas St. — shooing away drivers trying to park in front of them.
He has consulted with a civil litigation colleague and believes there may be grounds for a class-action lawsuit against the city for deliberately failing to warn drivers about the traps, and then profiting from them.
He’s started www.tickettrapangels.com to encourage people to warn off drivers they see parking in front of a ticket trap and enlisted the help of two paralegal students in patrolling the traps on University.
Holland thinks the city is flirting with fraud by refusing to do anything to make it easier for drivers to steer clear of the hydrants, one of which netted the city $289,620 in ticket revenue, from 2008 to 2013.
“The city’s true priority here is not open access to fire hydrants, but open access to the pockets of lawabiding drivers seeking legitimate parking,” he said, adding that it amounts to harassment.
“What we have here is not only a breach of ethics, but a breach of the city’s fiduciary relationship with its citizens and visitors, who should have no reason to fear a parking trap administered by the city and its staff.”
On March 7 we reported on a city pilot project to paint curbs red to alert drivers to ticket traps, including the one just north of Queen. It was discontinued after officials decided it didn’t work.
But the curbs were painted red in only eight locations, while the city did nothing to educate drivers about them. It seemed to us, and Holland, that there wasn’t any serious interest in fixing the problem.
And with a $100 fine for parking in front of them, the hydrants are like a tap that spews money into city coffers. Why mess with success?
Holland believes the pilot project, which began only at the insistence of former mayor Rob Ford, was not intended to succeed, and that bureaucrats never wanted to do it in the first place.
He describes the red curbs as a “self-evident, designed-to-fail experiment,” noting that if the city legitimately wanted to prevent people from parking in them, it could easily be done.
Over the past week, he has waved off upwards of 30 drivers who had parked in front of the hydrants when he approached them and taken down contact information for many of them, which he provided to us.
“It gives me a lot of pleasure to deny the city revenue that it should never get in the first place,” said Holland, noting the paralegal students began working with him this week and have also warned away many motorists.
Based on what we’ve seen at the University ticket traps, it would be easy for parking enforcement officers to issue a dozen or more tickets a day at each hydrant.
On-street parking is at a premium on University; as soon as one car pulls out of a spot, another wheels in. The hydrant areas are easy pickings for parking cops who have a daily quota to fill.
Last week, someone taped handlettered, cardboard signs to a utility pole to alert drivers to the hydrant north of Queen, which seems to have had more effect on parking enforcement officers than drivers.
On Monday, we stood with Holland and watched as a parking cop in a car stopped near a vehicle parked in front of the hydrant north of Queen, but then inexplicably moved on, instead of issuing a ticket.
It occurred to us that perhaps he spotted Holland, knew what he’s up to and decided to look for lower-hanging fruit, rather than provoke him further.
Considering that the same officer continued on to the other hydrant south of Dundas and tagged the vehicle in front of the hydrant with a $100 ticket, his reluctance to ticket the other car is all the more curious. Tomorrow: If the city really wanted to dissuade drivers from parking at ticket traps, the solution is as simple as a sign on a post. 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 email jlakey@thestar.ca. To read our blog, go to thestar.com/news/the_fixer. Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.