The city of Toronto is moving ahead with their pilot project for a new motorcycle parking plan that will enable them to charge riders for parking.
Under the new plan (first announced a year ago), the city will create specific parking locations for motorcycles and scooters, relying on pay-and-display machines. According to Toronto.ca, the locations will be in existing parking zones, marked off by painted lines. Supposedly, this will encourage motorcyclists to park “park legally on city streets and to park within the pay-and-display area in a controlled fashion to maximize available parking.”
In other words, this will make riders park where they want you to park. However, for now, the plan is to let motorcycles and scooters park for free in the pay-and-display locations, consistent with the city’s policy.
Remember, for years, scooter riders have been parking on Toronto sidewalks, and as far as we know, nobody’s been maimed or injured as a result. Motorcyclists have also had parking privileges; since the pay-and-display parking machines came in, bikes have been able to park for free, since it’s so easy for a passerby to steal your parking slip. The wind also easily blows those slips away.
Now, the city wants to assert some control over the situation; there will be 300 motorcycle-only parking spaces, spread through 25-30 locations. Toronto Parking Authority staff are going to monitor those spaces to see how well riders are complying. The program’s effectiveness will be reviewed next fall.
The city plans to have their pilot project running by the end of September.
You can find more details on the project, including parking locations, at the link here.
[…] Last month, we gave you some of the details of Toronto’s new parking program; in an effort to stop motorcycles and scooters from illegally parking (the horror!), they’ve set aside space in selected parking lots to shoehorn motorcycles in. Bikes can park in these spots for free, at least for now. […]
A surcharge onto the annual licence fee ??! So I live in Milton, and need to park my motorcycle in Toronto twice a year, and you live in Markham, and ride your bike to work 130 days of the year. Yeah that makes sense. No reason why I shouldn’t support you.
Why not just leave things as they are. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Are they actually going to generate enough revenue to cover the cost of all these infrastructure changes or is this another one of those just cuz’ projects? I can’t see any profit in this. Why not just add a surcharge onto the annual licence fee and not have to worry about special parking spaces and enforcement costs.
I guess we shouldn’t complain that the city is paying attention to motorcyclists’ needs. Usually we’re just ignored. I typically just park in out of the way corners near buildings, or unusable spaces in lots, and have never had a problem downtown. But of course then you get egomaniacs with chrome laden cruisers that feel the need to park on sidewalks near building entrances, forcing pedestrians to ‘look at my shiny bike’. Ruins it for everybody.
Ottawa has Half Price parking for Motorcycles at the pay and Display and a good app that lets you pay with your Mobile phone