Spend the night without a parking ticket
[attach]4431[/attach]At my request, in order to accommodate 24- and 48-hour temporary overnight on-street parking permits for visitors, council established such a permit at its May 17 meeting. The introduction of these permits will allow overnight and weekend visitors to park on streets designated under the permit parking program starting July 1.
The fee for a 24-hour temporary parking permit has been set at $8 and the 48-hour permit at $12. To guard against accidental ticketing, the police’s parking enforcement unit will use handheld devices to access permit parking records if a permit is not properly displayed.
In September 2007, Toronto made seven-day parking permits available through the Internet.
But, in speaking with many residents, I soon discovered that there was a real need for a shorter-term visitor-parking permit to accommodate people’s needs. In many cases, a day visit would turn into an overnight stay, which would leave motorists vulnerable to receiving a ticket through no fault of their own and with no options. All of us have hosted social gatherings with family and friends over a holiday or long weekend and have felt the frustration of having parking enforcement officers waiting for midnight and issuing tickets to our guests.
Sometimes it can even be a matter of safety. For example, someone that has had one drink too many would not feel compelled to take their car if they knew that they could safely leave their car overnight without fear of being ticketed.
To ensure that this new program is operating properly and to guard against any oversights, the acting general manager of transportation services will report back to the public works and infrastructure committee in one year’s time on the overall success of the online permit parking system.
I believe strongly that this program will be a great help to the residents of Toronto and that this is an excellent example of city hall listening to people and acting to address their concerns.
