Toronto

Toronto police drive home 'the new normal' for downtown deliveries

Toronto police say they are still teaching downtown drivers about "the new normal" during rush hour.

Hundreds of vehicles tagged yesterday and dozens were towed

The image above was one of several that Toronto police Const. Clint Stibbe tweeted on Tuesday, as part of an effort to drive home the point to drivers that if they park illegally on downtown streets during rush hour, they will be towed. (@TrafficServices/Twitter)

Toronto police say they are still teaching downtown drivers about "the new normal" during rush hour.

Const. Clint Stibbe was tweeting images Tuesday of vehicles that were illegally parked and then towed.

"Here we tow again," Stibbe tweeted in one post showing a Fed Ex truck attached to a tow truck.

Toronto police are driving home the message that they will tag and tow vehicles that aren't parked where they are supposed to be during rush hour. The image above was posted to Twitter by Const. Clint Stibbe on Tuesday. (@TrafficServices/Twitter)

Police say they towed 76 vehicles and tagged 592 vehicles during the morning and evening rush hours on Monday.

It's all part of a new effort to ensure that improperly parked vehicles aren't clogging lanes, which is a part of Mayor John Tory's plan to reduce gridlock.

The issue was something Tory had brought up during the recent mayoral campaign. After he was elected, Tory joked about driving tow trucks himself if it was necessary to start enforcing the illegal parking taking place during rush hour.

Coun. Jaye Robinson, the new chair of the city's public works and infrastructure committee, said Torontonians are on board with the approach.

"We now have the political leadership and the political will, quite frankly, and the focus to tackle congestion and gridlock," she said in an interview on CBC Radio's Metro Morning. "This is one of the measures we're putting in place."