Check out this luxury streetcar stop. What a delight: sitting in style in a wind-shaded area awaiting your transportation into the city.

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I do enjoy the sweet ride of a TTC streetcar now and then. Looking out the window as the world passes you by is quite a pleasure. And although these big gentle beasts are not affected by the snow themselves, other little critters do tend to get in their way.

Those critters are cars parking too close to the streetcar tracks due to snowbanks. Having sat through this twice in the last week, I can tell you how the story goes:
a) the car gets towed, but…
b) the towing has to be approved by the police, which can take some time.
c) the streetcars back up waiting for the blockage to be cleared and in the meantime pile up, leaving frustrated people standing in the freezing cold waiting to be picked up, and…
d) the streetcar drivers miss their breaks and are paid double time for working overtime because they are now so far behind schedule.
e) this even causes streetcars to have to turn around part way through the route instead of following the usual path, thus dropping off passengers only part of the way to their destinations.

This is an unfortunate and avoidable problem.

I think there should be a line painted onto the road 2 feet outside of the track (or whatever the magic number is) to tell drivers where they can and can’t safely park. This strategy combined with some signage that indicates the resulting towing would likely reduce blockages.

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streets, Toronto, transit, streetcar
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