Student comes up with way to stop drivers from taking his reserved parking spot
John Wells decided to take matters into his own hands when it comes to people parking in his reserved parking space at the Mimico GO Transit station.
"I've had this spot since November 1st. It's been an ongoing issue with people continuously parking in my parking spot," said the 26 year old Ryerson student. "I've parked at this GO station 15 times (in November). Of those 15 times, 10 there was someone in my spot."
Late last week he put up a laminated sign by his parking space warning drivers their cars will be tagged and towed if they park in Wells's space.
Since he put up the sign, no one has parked in his spot, Wells told CBC Toronto.
-
Wells decided to pay for a reserved parking spot at a cost of $95 a month, because the fourth-year Global Management student said there were never any free parking spots left at the Mimico GO when he has to catch the train to school.
But he didn't expect to have so many problems using it.
"I went to the resolutions department at Union Station and asked GO Transit the best course of action and they were like, 'The only thing you can really do is just call our parking enforcement,'" he said.
Running out of space
GO Transit has 74,000 parking spaces at its 64 stations across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area. About five per cent are reserved spots. The rest are free on a first-come, first-served basis.
"Many of our stations have reserved spots. In spite of the fact that it's a $95-a-month charge, we have lists of people that are waiting for spots," said Anne Marie Aikins, spokesperson for Metrolinx, which runs GO Transit.
This year, GO Transit received 98 complaints about people parking illegally in a reserved spot, she said. Of those, GO's transit safety officers investigated the majority of them and ticketed about half the vehicles.
Aikins said GO officers issued $125 tickets for cars parked in Wells's spot on two separate occasions.
"It's a provincial offence so it's not like a private parking lot ticket; you'll end up in court with it."
The number of parking complaints at GO stations has been low but Aikins doesn't expect that to last.
"We are running out of space. They're very expensive to build and maintain and we run out of land and so forth. So, that is something we're looking at as a strategy as we build our service out."
Aikins said GO Transit now provides free reserved parking spots for those who carpool and is looking at ways to encourage commuters to walk, bike or take local transit to GO stations instead of driving and parking. GO also plans to hire another eight transit officers to its roster of 80 to monitor illegal parking at stations.
Wells isn't sure eight more officers patrolling parking at 64 GO stations will be enough.
"The part I'm disappointed with is GO Transit oversight into the parking system itself."
GO Transit has offered Wells another parking spot farther from the free parking spaces, but he won't be parking there until the new year.
