Traffic Congestion.....A Problem Or Cash Cow

Mayor Green spouts the Goreparty line on reducing traffic congestion thereby reducing pollution but in reality would rather collect $$$$ than reducing the problem. Tow away courier trucks rather than ticket them and close the City Hall Parking garage. Two ways to reduce congestion.

Curbside justice nets $80 millionheStar.com - News - Curbside justice nets $80 million

Three courier companies set pace with 34,000 parking tickets last year — one every four minutes

June 17, 2007 Andrew Chung

Staff reporter

You have to watch closely for it, but every day a timeless cat-and-mouse game unfolds on the streets of Toronto, one in which the mice never learn their lesson, and the cats always bring in a big prize.

In this case, the mice are the hundreds of courier drivers who scurry around the downtown core every day in their trucks and vans, getting and delivering precious packages. The cats: the parking police.

Courier companies are Toronto's biggest parking violators. Of the top five ticket recipients in 2006, three were international couriers: Federal Express, United Parcel Service and Purolator.

The list, according to city records, was rounded out with two car rental companies, but those violations were committed by individual renters.

In 2006, the three couriers together compiled 33,716 tickets, worth approximately $1.5 million. That's about 130 tickets every workday, or roughly one ticket every four minutes during business hours.

But for the couriers, the fines are simply an unavoidable cost of doing business. They have no intention of parking legally. The city has no intention of halting the ticketing.