‘Parking sign from Mars’ leaves drivers guessing
A jumble of parking signs on Castle View Ave. forces drivers to guess at deciphering them.
And if they get it wrong, you can bet that parking enforcement officers will be Johnny-on-the-spot to correct them with a ticket.
That’s what happened to Sukhjit Sadiora, who sent us a photo of three signs on Castle View, just north of Casa Loma, where he got a $50 ticket because he didn’t properly interpret them.
The subject line of his email described a “parking sign from Mars,” noting that he was far from the only driver who thought he was legally parked.
“I would like to bring to your attention a parking nightmare I had near Casa Loma,” on Aug. 11 at 12.30 p.m., said Sadiora.
“I looked at the sign and it indicated its OK to park for 1 hour, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday. But sure enough, when I came back to my car I found a parking ticket for $50.
“I also noted the same (tickets) on other cars which were parked on the street,” he said.
“I hope that you can bring this matter up with the city, so that people do not suffer this cash grab from poor signage.”
We went there and found a cluster of three signs on the north side of Castle View, two of which are easy to understand.
The one-hour-parking sign referred to by Sadiora would seem to be the one that applies, between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., every day but Sunday. Another just above it says no parking from 2 a.m. to 10 a.m., except by permit.
And then there’s a third sign, the one from Mars. It seems to indicate that the same area to which the onehour-parking sign applies may also be a no-parking zone.
But it’s impossible to tell for sure. The sign is so faded that the only words on it that we could make out were “Apr. 1” and part of the word Thursday.
The restrictions on that sign are the likely basis for tickets issued to Sadiora and the other chumps. But who knows? Status: Allen Pinkerton, who’s in charge of city street signage and markings, sent us an email saying he has assigned a staffer to check out the signs and replace the one that’s faded. 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. To read our blog, go tothestar.com/ news/the_fixer. Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.