Description

I'm a merchant on the Danforth and find customers arrive by bike, by foot by subway and by car. The parking situation is such that any infraction is quickly ticketed and on a daily basis many cars are towed.

Many of those ticketed are just dashing in to shops like mine and they feel pressure to rush lest they get a ticket.

I've gotten in the habit of putting 50 cents or 1 dollar in the parking machines as I see tickets getting written. This generally annoys the parking officials but thrills the driver.

Yesterday I saw a ticket being written and I told the parking official: "Don't worry, I got this". I proceeded to put one dollar in the machine and put the slip under the wiper.

It was not my car and the officer told me that these tickets are "not transferable" and that what I was doing was illegal. I am not shy so I asked passers-by what they thought and we agreed unanimously that it is fine to pay tickets.

A ticket was dispensed despite the fact that I paid the fee before a ticket was issued. I left my card and the owner of the car called to thank me. He indicated that the time on the slip was two minutes ahead of the ticket.

Should he get a ticket? Was I acting illegally?