The next time you drive away from your illegal parking spot before the parking enforcement officer can hand you a ticket, spare a thought for your city.
According to a report going to the audit committee next week, so-called drive-aways contributed to an $18 million shortfall in parking tag revenue in 2008.That was the value of the 425,000 parking tags the city had to cancel that year. According to the report, many of those instances are a result of drivers speeding off before they can have the ticket attached to their windshield. In 2008, that meant $4.805 million had literally driven away - up slightly from 2007, when $4.53 million couldn't be collected because of lead-footed motorists.Under Ontario law, a ticket isn't valid until it's been either presented to the motorist or attached to the vehicle."They might see the guy ticketing cars, run and get into their car," said Doug Holyday, who chairs the citys' audit committee. "The law says if you don't put the ticket on the car or give it to the person you can't deliver the ticket. In B.C. and Alberta, if you catch them you can still mail them the ticket so that by running away they can't absolve themselves.""There are four or five million dollars a year being lost because of these runaways," continued Holyday, who said the laws need to be changed to match laws in British Columbia, where a motorist can still be served a ticket if he or she drives off.The city also continues to lose revenue to cars from out of province. In 2008, the city lost 4.023 million in revenue; in 2007, $3.452 million in revenue.The auditor general is recommending the city ask for a change in legislation to allow the city to mail parking tickets to offending motorists, and to examine the way Highway 407 collects tolls from out-of-province motorists."It's fairness," said Holyday. "The money is important too, but it's fairness. If you're going to be meting out penalties you can't have some get away with it and some pay up."The city also loses money from parking tag errors, delays in preparing trial documentation, from delivery vehicles and various other extenuating circumstances.