Public space on streets is undervalued
Toronto drivers already dread the telltale sight of a yellow ticket stuck to their windshield, but that dread is set to go into overdrive soon, assuming Mayor Olivia Chow and members of Toronto council this week approve a slate of recommended hikes to the most commonly issued on-street parking tickets in the city.
But spare me any sob stories. Chow and council have darn good reason to do it.
In fact, not doing it would be the real crying shame. Not only would it leave an estimated $40 million to $50 million in new municipal revenue on the table — enough to offset the need for a future one per cent residential property tax increase — it would also continue to hugely undervalue the public space on our streets.
Under the proposal on the agenda of this month’s council meeting, which kicks off Wednesday, tickets for some of the most common offences like not bothering to pay for on-street parking, exceeding the time you paid for, or parking in a permit parking area without a permit will increase from $30 to $75. If approved, the increase will go into effect on Aug. 1.
A 150 per cent increase is going to create some ticket shock, but consider this: the set fine for these tickets has been locked at $30 since 2005, after Toronto council dropped a previous policy that allowed drivers to settle these kinds of parking tickets by making a voluntary payment of $20 if they agreed not to take the matter before traffic court.
You know what else has been the same price since 2005? Basically nothing. Not your TTC fare. Not the average property tax bill. Certainly not groceries.
An inflationary increase alone would take the penalty from $30 to around $45.
But taking the amount even higher is justified too, because we’re not just talking about parking here. We’re talking about how we allocate — and value — our limited public space.
Over the last few years, Toronto has been late to the party in discovering that there are better things we can do with our streets than providing car storage.
The CaféTO program that was established during the pandemic and then made permanent, for example, saw about 2,400 parking spaces converted to allow for restaurant patios during the 2022 season.
As parking spaces, the Toronto Parking Authority reported, they would have generated about $2.7 million in parking revenue, or about $1,125 a space.
As patios, they generated restaurant sales of about $180 million, or $75,000 a space.
Meanwhile, along King Street, removing about 180 on-street parking spaces allowed for a transit corridor that shortened average travel times by five minutes and increased ridership by nearly 17 per cent. (The benefits were later blunted by lax enforcement, but an improved traffic agent program has helped bring them back.)
And in an increasing number of well-documented examples across the city, swapping parking for dedicated bike lanes has led to more cyclists, safer cycling and no measurable negative impact on businesses.
And let’s not forget that devoting two lanes of a four-lane road to parking for large chunks of the day is usually not a great tradeoff for most drivers either.
I heard from a reader who lives along Queen West recently who was delighted by the city recently reducing the hours where on-street parking is permitted on the street in response to nearby construction. It’s a temporary measure, but residents have noticed traffic is flowing better.
I’ve got some quibbles with the slate of recommendations going before Chow and city council this week. I don’t understand, for example, why the penalty for not paying for parking at all will remain the same as the penalty for exceeding the time a driver paid for. Not paying seems like a more grievous offence. And, given how tightly the city limits the availability of temporary parking permits for visitors in some neighbourhoods, I’m not sure the hike to the penalty for parking in a permit area without a permit should be so steep.
But still, the overwhelming conclusion from recent history should be that on-street parking comes with a massive tradeoff.
Without parking, we can use our streets for other things, like patios, bike lanes, wider sidewalks, and making more room for transit and traffic to move.
That’s not to say there’s no place for parking at all, but the price of parking — and especially the penalty for not paying that price — should account for that tradeoff.
Under Chow, city hall has made good strides in this direction recently. Council this week will also consider a smart recommendation endorsed by the mayor’s executive committee to begin looking at converting every city-owned parking lot into housing or another, better use. And, last year, Chow and council moved to address the price of on-street parking by increasing parking rates. The maximum onstreet rate is now $6.50 an hour, up from five bucks previously.
But those increases won’t mean much to those who don’t pay. For them, Toronto city hall shouldn’t hesitate to slap a yellow ticket on the windshield — with a fine that reflects the true cost of parking.