Toronto parking fines to jump on April 1

No fooling: Starting Friday, drivers will face bigger penalties — as part of efforts to combat congestion, mayor explains

Motorists in Toronto face steeper fines for a host of parking offences starting Thursday.

Fines will jump to $150 for blocking sidewalks; double parking; standing in TTC zones; and blocking lanes reserved for high-occupancy vehicles.

In a statement, Mayor John Tory said the bigger fines are part of Toronto’s efforts to ease congestion by cracking down on illegal parking.

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

The cited a 2008 study showing that congestion-caused delays and vehicle costs hit consumers in the pocketbook to the tune of $3.3 billion per year. However, just because the fines are levied doesn’t necessarily mean they will be paid.

Last September, Toronto quietly cancelled about 880,000 long-unpaid parking tickets worth about $20 million — including some for the offences now becoming costlier — citing limited court capacity and the difficulty of assuring citizens’ rights to a prompt trial.

Companies that rack up large num- bers of tickets can see some of their fines tossed out through “global resolution.” That process requires companies with fleet vehicles to pay all fines incurred on rush-hour routes, in fire routes and in disabled parking spaces.

The remaining cancelled tickets were for parking in areas labelled no-stopping, no-standing and noparking. City prosecutors and company representatives work to reach agreements that see some of these remaining tickets tossed out and others paid in full.

A recent city report revealed that Tory’s push for stepped-up enforcement for rush-hour parkers saw the number of towed vehicles doubleend in 2015 compared with the previous year.

However, the total number of parking tickets issued last year — revenues used to bolster increasing cashstrapped city budgets — continued to decrease for the fourth year in a row. With files from Stephen Spencer Davis and Jennifer Pagliaro