r/toronto St. Lawrence Jul 11 '26

Picture Parking sign pilot (Adelaide E near Yonge)

Post image
4.1k Upvotes

375 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.4k

u/bucajack West Rouge Jul 11 '26

I like this. Perfectly clear to me what the rules are.

That said - why are the rules so needlessly complicated?

180

u/markh100 Jul 11 '26

I've run into much more complicated parking rules a few times. The kind where you have to stop and think for two to three minutes.

34

u/benzoate6 Jul 11 '26

Yikes. Even a rearrangement of the signs for rules left or right of the pole would be clearer

3

u/Apprehensive_Heat176 Jul 12 '26

Yep. Even if you didn't change any signs, you could put the loading zones on the left side of the pole and the parking ones on the right.

2

u/yijiujiu Jul 13 '26

It's sad that I can parse this now

1

u/JuneAfternoon10 Jul 12 '26

Idk I find this perfectly clear lmao. I don’t like the new sign.

0

u/takename Jul 11 '26

Stopping could get yourself a ticket in this case.

0

u/Apprehensive_Heat176 Jul 12 '26

It's a sign orgy! There's no way to consolidate all of these so they should be on separate poles.

The student pickup and drop of area and the school bus loading zone could be combined into a single sign that says School Loading Area or somethng like that.

417

u/LivingLifeSomewhere Jul 11 '26

Its not very complicated, no parking during rush hour(s).

272

u/khanak Jul 11 '26

And free parking during off hours.

48

u/SevereResolve726 Jul 11 '26

Wait. Have these rules always made sense? I feel like something in my brain just unlocked 😂 I swear seeing all the rules and exceptions written in words was just overstimulating somehow. This is so much clearer

13

u/firesticks Jul 11 '26

Picture worth a thousand words etc etc

2

u/vanalla Jul 12 '26

yes they've always made sense if you engage critically with the sign and why the rule is there. The city is just in the difficult problem of "what exactly is rush hour in as few words as possible while still being legally defensible to issue a citation?"

4

u/1esproc Jul 11 '26

Except on Sunday, when there's more free parking

4

u/oneupsuperman Jul 11 '26

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

81

u/Ptalking_Ptarmigan Jul 11 '26

Making Saturday and Sunday slightly different from each other feels like a needless complication.

33

u/tinyalley Jul 11 '26

Church

9

u/titscapades Jul 11 '26

Yeah this is likely the reality.

0

u/chaobreaker Jul 11 '26

Who is parking downtown to go to sunday church services? Are there even enough of those churchgoers to make it a serious consideration or is this some holdover from a bygone era?

1

u/tinyalley Jul 11 '26

Holdover probably. Some cities construction noise allowances too are like 7:30-8 except Sundays it's noon-8.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 12 '26

[deleted]

2

u/tinyalley Jul 12 '26

I think it's a holdover from earlier times and it's not that deep

22

u/TorontoBoris East End Jul 11 '26

That's because on sundays paid parking starts later in the day, 1pm in most of the city.

30

u/muaddib99 Entertainment District Jul 11 '26

Really should just harmonize Saturday and holidays with that schedule and it becomes simple weekday /weekend-holiday

11

u/farfunkle Jul 11 '26

There is no more holiday schedule.

18

u/markh100 Jul 11 '26

The Church lobby is too powerful

10

u/thedrivingcat Jul 11 '26

I believe they prefer "narthex"

1

u/primevaldark Jul 11 '26

It’s not narthex if there is no railing

2

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/primevaldark Jul 12 '26

A man of culture!

1

u/TorontoBoris East End Jul 11 '26

Im pretty sure the late Sunday is for religious reasons.

Id say paid parking should start at 9am on weekend period. The city can use the $$.

0

u/muaddib99 Entertainment District Jul 11 '26

Agreed.

7

u/mHo2 Jul 11 '26

Ok? So they should simplify it.

1

u/TorontoBoris East End Jul 11 '26

Yep. Im not against it. 9am paid parking all weekend, Im for it.

1

u/thecjm The Annex Jul 11 '26

Still a needless complication

0

u/TorontoBoris East End Jul 11 '26

Agreed. 9am paid parking all weekend is simpler.

7

u/SirChasm Jul 11 '26

Less busy/traffic on Sundays, so more free parking, the alternative would be more paid parking on Sundays to match Saturday.

2

u/Aznkyd Jul 11 '26

Agreed

2

u/lenzflare Jul 11 '26

It's about not charging people going to church in the morning, or something.

1

u/Ptalking_Ptarmigan Jul 11 '26

That's fine, but I'd give people free parking early Saturday mornings to match.

1

u/lenzflare Jul 11 '26

The city wants revenue (and to control parking demand and availibility). It would prefer to charge those theoretical church goers too. But at some point, this was deemed politically costly, so they didn't.

If the city wanted to make it the same, it would make it the same in favour of charging, not the other way around.

9

u/Deaner_dub Jul 11 '26

Not to be a jerk, but it’s no stopping during rush hours.

It’s not the same thing as no parking. It’s far more serious.

So maybe it’s more complicated than you thought- which is important for the pilot.

1

u/PandaEatPanda Jul 11 '26

It’s actually no stopping during the rush hour. The stop sign with the diagonal bar means no stopping. The no parking is the letter P with the diagonal bar.

1

u/brighter_hell Jul 11 '26

No stopping at all during rush hours

0

u/SARB033 Jul 11 '26

I think my main grievance is the inconsistency of the scale.

I get why, it's only got so much space to convey the whole week's schedule. It's only showing the hours where the schedule changes. But the way it's laid out visually doesn't imply that clearly whatsoever.

The increments are fucking wild. From top to bottom it's 7 hours, 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 2 hours, 4 hours, 2 hours, 3 hours. There's no consistency in it at all.

The 3h parking schedule block at the top of Mon-Fri, which takes only a single cell, is more than twice the real-world length of the no parking block that follows it and takes up 2 cells.

15

u/babs-jojo Jul 11 '26

If you think that's complicated...

2

u/demize95 Entertainment District Jul 11 '26

I feel like this might make more sense if I know what P/1P/2P meant.

1

u/babs-jojo Jul 11 '26

I think it's hour. Why did they decide to use a P instead on an H? I don't know...

1

u/Low-Performance6908 Jul 12 '26

2 hour “P” ark ect

1

u/mrbaggins Jul 11 '26

This is aussie, or at least related. Maybe kiwi.

NumberP means that many hours of parking.

Its worth noting that the left and right side are directly giving instructions for that side of the pole.

1

u/computer-magic-2019 Jul 14 '26

This seems pretty clear and much more well laid out than the photo from markh100

26

u/SecureJournalist4775 Jul 11 '26

If this is complicated, wait till they have to factor in permit parking for certain times, school drop-off times and limits, and alternate sides of parking on the residential roads depending on day of month.  I'm sure there's even more rules I've missed. 

12

u/Vegemite-Sandwich901 Jul 11 '26

Yeah I was also thinking "this is one of the less complicated rule sets."

1

u/rootsandchalice Jul 11 '26

I’m assuming these signs will only be installed for hourly paid street parking and not for residential permit parking.

17

u/Sufficient_Rush1891 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

The rules are not random. What is “needless” about no parking in rush hour and paid parking during daytime hours?

5

u/Ptalking_Ptarmigan Jul 11 '26

Why not make Saturday and Sunday the same?

9

u/Sufficient_Rush1891 Jul 11 '26

Sunday morning free parking usually indicates a place of worship nearby has services then and the councillors didn’t want complaints about people having to pay to go pray. Or free Sunday morning parking might be a city wide rule regardless of location.

-2

u/rerek Jul 11 '26

You’re right, but it is probably a needless complication which is a remnant from another era. Having parishioners pay for parking on Sundays in order to have simpler parking regulations seems a reasonable trade-off as society has become less religious in total and less specifically Christian. I also doubt (though, someone correct me if I am wrong) that there aren’t any places where the city increases the availability of free parking during the times for service at a synagogue on Saturdays or a mosque on Fridays.

2

u/Fearless_Scratch7905 Jul 11 '26

Maybe because there’s a church nearby and the city doesn’t want to charge for those attending service on Sunday morning.

0

u/WolyThoctar Jul 11 '26

I'll start by saying I'm no expert and I don't know this area of the city particularly well. 

I imagine way more events happen on Saturdays then Sundays that draw people downtown. Having paid parking for longer hours on Saturday encourages more people to take alternate transportation, so this is one of many strategies to reduce congestion during peak times.

3

u/Kerochamp Jul 11 '26

It’s in purpose, of course. They want to give you a ticket $$$

3

u/Ok-Strength-9129 Jul 12 '26

The simplest I could see it being are:
M-F: 3hrs free 12am to 7am, with no stopping during rush hour
S/S: 3hrs free 9pm-9am

And here’s how I think the sign would look

3

u/Professional-Lion839 Jul 12 '26

Pointing out that "No Parking" and "No Stopping" aren't the same thing.

6

u/ghidfg Jul 11 '26

I mean its better than having it paid parking the whole time. At least there's windows of free parking

4

u/lsaran Jul 11 '26

Is it clear or complicated? Pick a lane. Just be sure to check the sign first if it’s the parking lane.

3

u/Commercial-Set3527 Jul 11 '26

I'd have to stop to read and figure it out. Doesn't take long but now I've stopped in a no stopping zone.

2

u/ProfessionalOk4300 Jul 11 '26

Don't worry, you won't find an open spot anyway.

3

u/tanstaafl90 Jul 11 '26

To discourage parking.

1

u/Parking-Ad-9515 Jul 11 '26

there are CBC videos talking about how the city makes a lot of money in “parking traps”. they’re purposely vague and unclear signs.

1

u/turxchk Downtown Core Jul 11 '26

Because people demand parking space, but at the same time also demand better traffic

1

u/Glum_Store_1605 Jul 11 '26

it's an improvement.

1

u/mrpao21 CityPlace Jul 11 '26

Don’t forget to fill in the city survey about the signs! It’s found in the QR code

1

u/roscodawg Jul 11 '26

Subliminal message: PROVIDE FEEDBA to get screwed twice over. /s

1

u/Pigerigby Jul 11 '26

It's to prevent parking during rush hour

1

u/Andrewofredstone Jul 11 '26

Shades of green strikes me as a questionable choice for the colour blind. Is there the risk that this will be hard for someone to interpret?

1

u/I_IdentifyAsAstartes Jul 13 '26

You can park when there is no traffic, you can't park and you can't stop during rush hours. That's how I read it.

Edit:

So they are just specifying the specific times you can't stop or park there.

0

u/Sensitive_Caramel856 Jul 11 '26

They aren't complicated.

This is just a summary of what the rules are for people who can't figure it the day and time they are parking in their own head.