Brief Overview of this Article:
In this article, it shows the ways that Canadian citizens can be exempt from paying a parking ticket charge including: medical and religious reasons.
Ticket cancelling manual released
Once-secret guidelines explain possible escapes from that parking fine
Once-secret guidelines explain possible escapes from that parking fine
Robyn Doolittle
Urban Affairs Reporter
If you are old, have a medical condition or are religious you have a good chance of beating a parking ticket in Toronto.
The excuses that work with bureaucrats were made public Tuesday night when city council voted to release the holy grail of how-tos: the Parking Ticket Cancellation Guidelines.
According to the previously confidential report, city staff can cancel tickets for drivers on compassionate grounds, especially if they live more than 100 kilometres from Toronto.
Other potentially acceptable excuses are that the driver was attending worship, confused over which side of the street to park, or got multiple tickets for the same offence in a 3-hour window.
The 18-page report details exemptions for fast-food delivery, nursing agencies, tour buses, taxicabs, disabled drivers and delivery vehicles, among others.
Like police, fire and ambulance services, city councillors on “city business” can have tickets cancelled for virtually any infraction.
So why did city council make public some of its deepest secrets?
“Myself and Councillor Moscoe have been trying to get it released for a long time, and staff have constantly been saying ‘It’s confidential, it’s confidential, it’s confidential,” said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong.
He asked city solicitor Anna Kinastowski to explain why.
The rationale, she said, was that the guidelines “were drafted in a manner that makes them perhaps not quite understandable to average members of the public. And they can be used against the city.” Kinastowski said there could be litigation and revenue concerns.
Minnan-Wong said these arguments were “very weak.”
“Here a group of bureaucrats have set up these secret rules that nobody knows about,” he said. “I think that there is a risk that once some of these rules get out that they may be open to abuse, and if that’s the case there has to be some consideration whether those rules should be applied.”
Bureaucrats are encouraged to use “sound judgment and problem solving skills” when evaluating excuses. A driver’s previous ticket history is almost always a factor when deciding whether to cancel a ticket.
Ignorance can be bliss when it comes to parking tickets.
You can escape a fine if you can convince staff you were unaware of the parking rules, or “unusual circumstances” kept you from putting cash in the meter.
Council voted 23-8 in favour of releasing the document and having the issue guidelines reviewed by committee. In the meantime, the full list is online at the City of Toronto website.
During the council meeting, Moscoe said the current system wastes time and money.
“Taking a ticket to court that is going to lose automatically puts the whole system in a bad light and it wastes a whole lot of police officer time, staff time and prosecution time,” he said.
“It makes no sense to allow all the tickets that are automatically written for whatever reason to go to court when you know there’s a whole block of them that are going to lose.”
If you are old, have a medical condition or are religious you have a good chance of beating a parking ticket in Toronto.
The excuses that work with bureaucrats were made public Tuesday night when city council voted to release the holy grail of how-tos: the Parking Ticket Cancellation Guidelines.
According to the previously confidential report, city staff can cancel tickets for drivers on compassionate grounds, especially if they live more than 100 kilometres from Toronto.
Other potentially acceptable excuses are that the driver was attending worship, confused over which side of the street to park, or got multiple tickets for the same offence in a 3-hour window.
The 18-page report details exemptions for fast-food delivery, nursing agencies, tour buses, taxicabs, disabled drivers and delivery vehicles, among others.
Like police, fire and ambulance services, city councillors on “city business” can have tickets cancelled for virtually any infraction.
So why did city council make public some of its deepest secrets?
“Myself and Councillor Moscoe have been trying to get it released for a long time, and staff have constantly been saying ‘It’s confidential, it’s confidential, it’s confidential,” said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong.
He asked city solicitor Anna Kinastowski to explain why.
The rationale, she said, was that the guidelines “were drafted in a manner that makes them perhaps not quite understandable to average members of the public. And they can be used against the city.” Kinastowski said there could be litigation and revenue concerns.
Minnan-Wong said these arguments were “very weak.”
“Here a group of bureaucrats have set up these secret rules that nobody knows about,” he said. “I think that there is a risk that once some of these rules get out that they may be open to abuse, and if that’s the case there has to be some consideration whether those rules should be applied.”
Bureaucrats are encouraged to use “sound judgment and problem solving skills” when evaluating excuses. A driver’s previous ticket history is almost always a factor when deciding whether to cancel a ticket.
Ignorance can be bliss when it comes to parking tickets.
You can escape a fine if you can convince staff you were unaware of the parking rules, or “unusual circumstances” kept you from putting cash in the meter.
Council voted 23-8 in favour of releasing the document and having the issue guidelines reviewed by committee. In the meantime, the full list is online at the City of Toronto website.
During the council meeting, Moscoe said the current system wastes time and money.
“Taking a ticket to court that is going to lose automatically puts the whole system in a bad light and it wastes a whole lot of police officer time, staff time and prosecution time,” he said.
“It makes no sense to allow all the tickets that are automatically written for whatever reason to go to court when you know there’s a whole block of them that are going to lose.”
Top 5 parking ticket excuses
1.Members of a congregation attending worship can get a ticket cancelled by getting a letter from a clergy person.
2.Under a courtesy exemption, drivers who can convince staff they were tagged because of medical reasons, age, unusual circumstances, or ignorance of the bylaw — particularly those who live more than 100 kilometres out of the city — might get off.
3.Those parking on streets where authorized parking alternates from side to side can argue they were confused about the schedule. A grace period for “change-over dates” is allowed.
4.Security companies, utility vehicles, taxis and limos, delivery trucks and fast food delivery drivers can all appeal to have tickets cancelled if they can prove they were on business at the time of the tag.
5.If you’re ticketed more than once in 3 hours for the same reason — such as an unpaid meter — you can ask to have subsequent tickets cancelled if you pay the first
June 9, 2010 at 8:03 PM
After reading this article, I was very surprised to learn the different types of reasons a person could use to be exempt from paying a parking ticket. Though some reasons seem to be reasonable, others appear to be irrational because they have do not provide a sufficient answer as to why they parked illegally. For example, a person can avoid paying a fine if they are attending a worship. I think this is illogical because attending a worship does not affect you ability to park your vehicle in legal parking spaces. I expected there to be stricter rules since our government is very concerned with driving policies in our society.
In my opinion, I think there should be stricter rules for parking fines because there are many drawbacks with lenient rules. With indulgent regulations, people will become less law-abiding. Since most citizens abide the laws because it is the morally right thing to do, they also do it to avoid the punishment. However, if they are able to repeatedly break the rules and do not receive any punishment, they will be less afraid to do it again in the future. For example: someone could park in an illegal area and not think twice about their actions because they could easily argue that they were on a business trip as an excuse to avoid paying the fine. They would not hesitate to park illegally because they know that their charges would be emitted as long as they gave the right excuse. This shows that without punishment, citizens will be less fearful of breaking the rules and become less obedient of regulations.
Furthermore, as the article mentioned, it results in a loss of both time and effort. If these fines are continually brought to court with a low success rate of getting the driver to pay the fee, then it not only wastes the time of police officers and lawyers, but also the effort of parking enforcement officers.
However, with stricter policies, a parking ticket will regain its value and purpose. By not easily being omitted, it would play a greater role in influencing citizens to do the right thing since it reminds them of the consequences of their actions. Stricter regulations would help create obedience in our society. Furthermore, it would make a police officer’s effort worthy of their time because people would not simply be exempted from paying the fine. Stricter policies will help make our citizens more law-abiding as well as recognize the efforts of our police officers.
This article relates to civics because it demonstrates the policies of government-funded organizations and how there is always room for improvement.