Description

Does Toronto have something against its residents socializing? I'm speaking specifically about a rule that you're not allowed to park more than three hours on a residential street. That's not even long enough to watch a football game from beginning to end. My daughter got a $15 ticket the other day for "parking more than 3 hours" on a street near us. There are no posted signs anywhere stating parking limits of any kind (even the odious no parking between 2 am and 6 am, which is posted on our streets). Apparently the city thinks we should all automatically know this. Yet I polled a dozen experienced Toronto drivers and not one ever heard of that restriction, and most thought it ridiculous. The city website says there are signs posted at the city limits telling people about this 3-hour parking rule. I took a drive past the city limits to re-enter the city to see these signs for myself. They're there all right, but unless you're looking for them, you're unlikely to see them, or to read the small print while driving at 60 km/h and watching the cars in front of you. I thought he highway traffic act required rules to be clearly posted for drivers. And this would make no sense for residents who wouldn't likely see those signs at all, let alone look for them. The city seems to have bureaucrats who have nothing better to do with their time than to sit around looking for ways to make people's lives miserable. Now I have to go fight this ticket when I shouldn't have to. For the city to argue, which they might, that ignorance of the law is no excuse, well my reply is that may apply to moral matters to which we are socialized from the time we're babes (like the golden rules we learn, from Thou Shalt not Steal to Thou Shalt not Kill. I don't recall any golden rule stating Thou Shalt not park more than three hours on Toronto streets). This bylaw should be quashed. The only time people should get a ticket is if they are blocking fire hydrants, or if someone complains a car is blocking their driveway. I should add Cambridge is looking at eliminating a similarly asinine bylaw.
Yours truly
Bruce Gates