Car2Go Illegal Parking - Solutions?

[nfitz]

I've seen it a few times in my neighbourhood, but if I recall the car had more than one ticket. So perhaps it had been parked illegally two days or more? IDK.

It's rare to even see a ticket in my neighbourhood overnight. It's only done on a complaint basis - and fortunately no neighbours from hell.

 

[Admiral Beez]

There does seem to be inconsistent enforcement across the city. In Cabbagetown, where I live (and no neighbours from hell I can think of) the parking authority is constantly trolling the streets. Every morning I see cars ticketed.

 

[Skeezix]

My experience is the same as Admiral. I live off the Danforth. Parking Enforcement will go up and down my street, seemingly at least once every night. When I walk my dog first thing, I see the same thing on surrounding streets - little yellow tickets on the windshields of parked cars without permits.

 

[nfitz]

Presumably someone is complaining.

How easy it is to find a spot overnight? Never a problem in my neighbourhood - school and park around the corner, so supply exceeds demand. And there's no waiting list for street parking in my zone.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Presumably someone is complaining.

I'd think it's got more to do with the quota they need to hit and knowing where the fish are.

 

[Skeezix]

Presumably someone is complaining.

Every night on every street? I doubt it.

There is no waiting list in my zone either. And it's not that difficult to find a spot for overnight parking. Some aspects of enforcement are complaint driven (they don't venture into the rear lanes unless someone complains), but it's mainly just routine.

 

[yyztvguy]

I'm surprised that they haven't reached out to see if they can find people with vacant parking spots in residential areas. These could be used as "home" parking spots - and the owner of the spot could collect credits towards using the vehicle.

 

[FNTS]

Admiral Beez, I think you're misunderstanding Car2go's policy. They don't condone parking where and when it is explicitly illegal, only where 3-hour on-street parking is allowed. What they do is they monitor parked cars, and if one stays at the same spot for close to 3 hours they will send a driver to move the car somewhere else (probably a block or two), but if it is not moved and it gets a ticket, then they'll pay it.

In the case of the photo you uploaded, that car was parked against Car2go's rules (and those of the City).

 

[Admiral Beez]

I suppose the Car2Go and Zip model of a big foreign corp owning a fleet of cars will eventually be erased by pure car sharing, such as via https://turo.com/

 

[wopchop]

Every night on every street? I doubt it.

There is no waiting list in my zone either. And it's not that difficult to find a spot for overnight parking. Some aspects of enforcement are complaint driven (they don't venture into the rear lanes unless someone complains), but it's mainly just routine.

When I lived in Davisville they would ticket every night. But over in Long Branch, you used to be able to get away with it.

But like you said, it isn't just complaints. Or even routine.

It's more than just routine. It's peer pressure. See this old article.

Answering the oft-asked question of whether officers must meet a ticket quota, Johnstone said no, but that they do have to meet “performance standards” based on historical data for the area they patrol — “sort of a peer review, shall we say.”

The standard is determined by combining the last three years of parking ticket data for the area. If the historical data shows a drop in an area, then the standards would be adjusted.

“There’s nothing in our writings that say that they have to go and write so many tickets per day,” he said, adding that standards for the downtown are higher than standards for Scarborough because of traffic volume.

But officers’ performance is reviewed every 21 days. If they fail to meet the historical data, parking managers will review the officer actions, including the number of bylaws they’re enforcing.

 

[nfitz]

In

When I lived in Davisville they would ticket every night. But over in Long Branch, you used to be able to get away with it.

But like you said, it isn't just complaints. Or even routine.

It's more than just routine. It's peer pressure. See this old article.

Interesting - so if they get a low yield from a particular area, like me on Gerrard, they probably move north towards Danforth and the subway, or south to Queen E and the beaches, where I hear it's like shooting fish in a barrel at 12:05 am.

 

[marcus_a_j]

I suppose the Car2Go and Zip model of a big foreign corp owning a fleet of cars will eventually be erased by pure car sharing, such as via https://turo.com/

Though I've never offered my place on AirBnB, I'd feel more comfortable doing that than renting out my car.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Admiral Beez, I think you're misunderstanding Car2go's policy. They don't condone parking where and when it is explicitly illegal, only where 3-hour on-street parking is allowed. What they do is they monitor parked cars, and if one stays at the same spot for close to 3 hours they will send a driver to move the car somewhere else (probably a block or two), but if it is not moved and it gets a ticket, then they'll pay it.

But on my street in Cabbagetown, they are parking where it is explicitly illegal, see my pic at top, where it's clearly illegal to park without a permit, same (though far more morally reprehensible and fine costly) as if I parked in a handicapped spot without a permit.

And they do condone it, essentially saying on their site and in the media that the city hasn't ruled in our favour, so we'll do what we want.

 

[nfitz]

How many nights a week is the car there? If not many, then could have been a simple mistake.

 

[TheOneAbove]

I understand your point in this instance, but do we really want large corporations choosing which municipal laws they can ignore? Shredding and delivery trucks already jam up downtown roads, accepting tickets as a cost of business. If food trucks can ignore by-laws on location, then why not on food safety? Can developers or renovation contractors ignore bylaws they feel are silly?

The city has provided Car2Go parking in GreenP lots across the city. It's not as if the company isn't being heard and accommodated by the city. IMO it's not the same as Uber, which is essentially a tool to let me share my car with someone else. Instead, Car2Go is a car rental corporation, not a service, akin to AVIS, Hertz, etc, but in this case using the city's infrastructure as part of their business, without that city's permission. If I open a moving truck service tomorrow, such as https://www.goshare.co/home/ can I use the city's residential roads to store my trucks? I'd like to think they'd get towed PDQ.

Honestly, the easy fix to shredders, couriers, car rental firms, etc. from illegal parking is not tickets at all, but disabling the vehicle.

Car2Go is essentially the same as Uber, which is also a corporation, in that its just the end user opting to park in a given location. The rules have to be modernized I suppose, because car sharing as a service isn't going anywhere.