TTC tells Toronto drivers to stop blocking roads after parked cars cause a series of streetcar delays

Thestar.com
February 1, 2019
Jack Hauen

The TTC is telling Toronto drivers to smarten up after a number of cars parked too close to streetcar tracks caused delays on some of the city’s busiest surface routes this week.

“Everybody needs to keep in mind that we share the road,” said TTC spokesperson Hayley Waldman when asked about a series of of streetcar backups since Monday night’s blizzard.

“Everybody’s trying to get where they need to go, and, obviously, when a streetcar isn’t able to get from Point A to Point B, there are a lot of customers on board who are going to be delayed.”

Waldman said she did not know exactly how many delays have been caused by drivers parked too close to streetcar tracks since the storm.

The “mountains” of snow piled up on city streets are contributing to the problem, she said.

Drivers who block traffic in this way can be fined $60, said Brian Moniz, supervisor of Toronto Police Parking Enforcement Operations. Depending on where the vehicle is located, the tow fine can be anywhere between $200-$300.

Since the blizzard, Moniz said nine tickets have been issued involving drivers blocking streetcars.

Allyson Quinn was travelling to visit a friend Tuesday evening when her 506 Carleton streetcar stopped, then lingered longer than usual.

The driver stepped out, then got back on and made an announcement, she said: An Audi was blocking the streetcar. The streetcar driver would have to call a tow truck. It could take a long time.

Quinn said she waited on the stopped streetcar for about 20 minutes before she and most other passengers decided to walk.

“It was freezing,” she said. “The wind was blowing, and I just felt so bad for the seniors.”

Quinn said the driver told her it was the 30th similar incident he’d heard of that day alone.

The Audi’s driver should have known the SUV was on the streetcar tracks, Quinn said, adding it was “a good couple feet out from the snowbank.”

The driver “obviously just didn’t want to be anywhere near the snowbank,” she said.

In a separate incident, Twitter user @giullio_plans posted on Tuesday photographs of at least 10 streetcars and buses backed up on Broadview Ave. because the driver of a dark SUV had parked too close to the tracks. In one photograph, the line of TTC vehicles, marked by their glowing blue lights, stretches so far down Broadview, it curves out of sight around the corner.

That stretch of Broadview is used by the 304 and 504 King streetcars and the 505 Dundas line, which is temporarily running buses.

Another photo, which sparked a vibrant discussion on Reddit Wednesday, shows another streetcar blocked on King St. E., stuck behind a parked Audi convertible.

A photo posted to Twitter on Tuesday shows a King streetcar blocked by a BMW parked on BroadviewAve.

Yet another pic, posted Tuesday morning, shows a different 506 streetcar blocked by a Mazda.

Drivers blocking TTC routes is a “growing concern,” said former Toronto police parking enforcement officer Kyle Ashley.

In the past, tickets were given out too freely to drivers who parked their cars too far from the curb, Ashley said. Now, those tickets require a supervisor’s sign-off, and this means it’s difficult to catch everyone parking too close to streetcar tracks, especially during a snowstorm, when TTC personnel is already stretched thin.

“It’s a problem on any given day … when you add snow into the mix, it just makes it 10 times worse.”

City crews have been working hard, day and night, to clear snow from Monday’s storm, said city spokesperson Eric Holmes, who added that their response has been “in line with council-approved levels of snow-clearing service.”

The response has been especially difficult, he said, because the city was forecast to get between seven and 20 centimetres of snow Monday night, but received as much as 30 centimetres in some places. It’s a total the city hasn’t been reached since 2008.

“City staff are always exploring ways to improve the snow-clearing operation,” he said.

A streetcar operator who encounters a blockade on the road has to first let customers know that there might be a delay, Waldman said, and then notify traffic control, which can contact city parking enforcement for a tow truck.

If service behind the streetcar is getting significantly delayed, the TTC then tries to reroute service, or bring on buses to support the streetcars.

According to Don Peat, a spokesperson for Mayor John Tory, the city’s general manager of Transportation Services has the power to declare a major snow event, in which parking on roads designated as snow routes is prohibited for 72 hours in order to assist the city in snow cleanup following a storm, but has not done so in roughly 20 years.

“Transportation Service staff have reviewed the condition of the Snow Routes following this storm and confirmed that a declaration was not required,” Peat said. “City crews are working with the TTC to remove any snow that may be impeding transit vehicles and removing snow at locations where lane widths have been substantially reduced.”

He added: “This was the biggest snow storm that we've had in 10 years, and Mayor Tory appreciates the ongoing work that crews are doing to clean-up our streets.”

Quinn said it was the first time she has had to leave a streetcar because a driver decided to park as though the driver had never seen snow before.

“I’ve had to get off a streetcar, because they’ve had mechanical issues or something like that, but never because there was a car parked and blocking their way.”