Angelina Salvaggio has been taking the subway from the
TTC’s Wilson Station to her downtown office job for about 10 years.
But in the past few days her commute has gone from routine to unbearably stressful.
The 45-year-old mother can no longer find parking at any of the three lots at Wilson since the TTC’s 1,100 spaces at
Yorkdale mall closed last Monday.
She was “stunned” by the scene at Wilson that greeted her there when the post-holiday commute kicked in on Jan. 6.
“People were honking, getting out of their cars, screaming at one another. Cars were parking anywhere and everywhere on the lot. It was a complete mess inside the lot and on Wilson Heights,” said Salvaggio, who takes the subway to avoid the cost of downtown parking and traffic.
On Tuesday, there was another nasty scene when a parking attendant was stationed at the Wilson gate to discourage illegal parking. When he closed the lot, all hell broke loose, according to Salvaggio.
“Cars were trying to back up as cars were trying to get in. As I was stuck in this mess, I… noticed that there were still at least 15 parking spots available,” she said.
People were yelling and demanding to know why the attendant had locked the car lot and put a “full” sign up when there were still a few vacancies. Eventually the attendant opened the gate and Salvaggio was lucky to snare the last spot. But the parking employee advised her to show up earlier in the future, something Salvaggio says she can’t do because she has to take her son to kindergarten.
The Yorkdale lot will be closed until fall 2015 as the shopping centre undergoes major renovations. Officials with the TTC and the Toronto Parking Authority (TPA), which operates the lots at transit stations, say they’re sorry but there’s not much they can do.
“The problem is that all these lots are first-come-first-served,” said Andy Koropeski, of the TPA. “With the closure at Yorkdale there’s a lot more demand for other locations.”
He’s optimistic the situation at Wilson will level off as people figure out where and when the various lots fill up.
The next closest lot, at Downsview, also fills up early most days.
TTC spokesman Brad Ross suggested that commuters who find they can’t park in their regular spot drive on to Finch, where there are still more than 300 vacant parking spaces most days.
“It’s cold comfort, I realize, but it’s left us in a difficult position when clearly we’ve lost space at Yorkdale temporarily,” he said.
“Making the choice to take transit is clearly one the TTC favours. Unfortunately parking space is at a premium in the city proper,” said Ross.
In 2016, when the Spadina subway extension to York Region opens, there will be more car lots at the new stations there.
Meantime, the TTC, which owns about 13,695 parking spaces in 28 lots, decided in December to keep several of its parking lots open even though they were declared surplus in 2009. That’s when demand for parking slipped to 62 per cent of the transit system’s available spots.
In the meantime, however, that demand has rebounded to 81 per cent on average, according to a
December report approved by the TTC board.
The Wilson west and south parking lots will remain open now until the Spadina subway extension opens in 2016. Downsview and Islington will be reassessed at that time. The Warden North and Victoria Park lots will remain open at least until 2021, after the Eglinton LRT opens, in part to provide space for construction staging. Kennedy is also to retain at least 30 per cent of its parking capacity until the Eglinton line and the Scarborough subway line open.
The TTC is also looking at potentially expanding parking at some of its existing stations, but TTC chief operating officer Vince Rodo said that was still being studied.
GO Transit is the largest parking operator in the Toronto region and has been building decked parking facilities at many of its stations to try to meet the seemingly endless demand for parking at its stations.
Salvaggio laughed at the suggestion she park at Finch. She doesn’t believe she should have to leave her home 90 minutes early to take a 30-minute trip.
“Sure. Let me sit in traffic for half an hour travelling north so that it will take me another half hour to get back south to my original location. That will help my stress level in the mornings,” she scoffed.
