In mid-July, Brian Cumming of Oakville wrote me about his repeated
requests to GO Transit, asking them for more stringent parking
enforcement at the south gravel parking lot at Oakville station.
“I cannot
understand why they sit by and do nothing while people are playing
bumper cars in the parking lots. Day after day, people park all over
the place and it has gotten to the point that some park in the
middle of the aisle. This makes life hellish getting out of the lot.
One lady asked me to drive her car because she was unable to
maneuver out of a parking spot.
“I recently
sent a email to GO after trying to get out of the parking lot and
ending up with a scrape down the side of my vehicle. I told them
that they are responsible, as I am likely looking at a new paint
job. I would not need this if they enforced parking, and asked them
if they could respond to the email I sent. That was two weeks ago
and I am still waiting.”
Spokesman
Edmund Shea reports that although GO’s “goal for customer enquiries
is to reply within 10 business days,” an email response was sent to
Mr. Cumming two days after his latest message was received.
Considering how easily spam can clog electronic mail addresses, and
how legitimate messages can be lost to junk mail filters, we may
need to think about how reliable email is for formal complaints. Now
that both the TTC and GO offer online comment forms on their
websites, perhaps it would be wise to request a second, back-up
email address from anyone using the form.
As for parking
on gravel lots -- Caveat Conductor. If I have my Latin right -- it
means ‘let the driver beware’ -- and that’s the rule when parking on
these temporary lots. Even with more than 42,500 parking spaces at
dozens of GO train stations, there is a powerful hunger for more.
New lots may fill up soon after they are opened, and many motorists
would rather risk a parking ticket than drive downtown. GO has
agreements with many GTA transit agencies to get riders to the train
using local buses --sometimes even offering bargain rides for 25
cents -- yet it can still be more convenient to drive.
Mr. Shea says
that gravel lots allow GO to “offer more parking capacity to our
customers than no lots at all.” He adds that GO doesn't have “the
resources to patrol all our parking lots round the clock and must
rely on random patrols. Gravel lots are meant to be temporary until
we can pave them, and how soon we can pave (or expand) a parking lot
depends on factors such as budget constraints and the prioritizing
of construction projects.
He goes on,
“Parking in gravel lots is a challenge to enforce. We don't have the
legal right to tag a vehicle unless it's parked next to a ‘No
Parking’ sign, or it's outside a designated space.” Mr. Shea points
out that parking spots aren’t marked on gravel because the lines
would disappear quickly, and then he delivers the real bottom line:
“Signs advise passengers that they use the gravel lots at their own
risk.”
It is hard to
say how many GO users have suffered vehicle damage in such unpaved
lots, and just quietly paid for it. If you have experienced a dent
or scrape, write In Transit at
transit@eddrass.com. If you haven’t, do you think gravel lots
are better than nothing? Is the risk worth it, compared to driving
downtown in rush hour?