Parking situation at Fortieth St. and Lake Shore Blvd. West appears to be improving

No Parking sign on west side of Fortieth St. near Lake Shore Blvd. West. I’ve added this subsequent to writing the text at the post you are now reading. Jaan Pill photo

No Parking sign on west side of Fortieth St. near Lake Shore Blvd. West. I’ve added this subsequent to writing the text at the post you are now reading. Jaan Pill photo

No Parking signs on East side of Fortieth St. near Lake Shore Blvd. West. I’ve added this subsequent to writing the text at the post you are now reading. Jaan Pill photo

No Parking signs on East side of Fortieth St. near Lake Shore Blvd. West. I’ve added this subsequent to writing the text at the post you are now reading. Jaan Pill photo

No Parking signs on East side of Fortieth St. near Lake Shore Blvd. West. I’ve added this subsequent to writing the text at the post you are now reading. Jaan Pill photo

Typical parking scene at Fortieth St. and Lake Shore Blvd. West. I’ve added this subsequent to writing the text at the post you are now reading. Jaan Pill photo

For a long time, I’ve been planning to post an update, with photos, regarding the parking situation at Fortieth St. and Lake Shore Blvd. West in Long Branch.

When I find some photos, taken in the past, I will post them.

In the meantime, I will describe the scene. On the west side of Fortieth St. at Lake Shore Blvd. West, the two or three car lengths going south from Lake Shore Blvd. West are actually in a No Parking zone.

There is a No Parking sign posted, but it is not easy to notice. I guess when a person observes a ticket on her of his windshield, in the event a car has been parked in the No Parking zone, then she or he will also observe that there is, indeed, a No Parking sign in evidence.

On the east side of Fortieth St., there is also a No Parking sign in place, as well as a Do Not Block Driveway sign. The No Parking sign points toward Lake Shore Blvd. West to the north; it also points south along Fortieth St.

On a walk around July 31, 2017 by the corner of Fortieth St. and Lake Shore Blvd. West, I noticed a phenomenon quite distinct from the issue of parking. I noticed a jet flying to Pearson Airport. The jets were fling quite low. I became interested in getting as much of a jet into the picture frame of my iPhone, as I could, as the jets proceeded to fly overhead. Jaan Pill photo

A year or two ago, I observed a car parked along the east side of Fortieth St. It was, as I recall, blocking part of my travel as I was driving north toward Lake Shore Blvd. West. There were cars parked along the west side of Fortieth St. near Lake Shore Blvd. West. As I was travelling, I honked my horn, to let whoever was in the vicinity know that I was going to make an effort to wend my way through this minefield of cars, without in the process running into a collision.

A woman was walking north along the roadway, on the west side of Fortieth St., as I beeped my horn. She took major offence at the fact that somebody was honking their horn. She stopped to share sundry rhetorical questions regarding the propriety – that is, the state or quality of conforming to conventionally accepted standards of behaviour – of a driver honking a horn, on such an occasion. I did not stop to engage in banter with her, as I had a concern that if I were to stop, some car travelling north behind me would smash into my car.

Collision

I have observed the aftermath of one collision at Fortieth St. and Lake Shore Blvd. West. On that occasion, I was walking south from Lake Shore Blvd. West along the sidewalk on the west side of Fortieth St. As I was walking, I was lost in thought – thinking about something – when I heard the collision. The combination of circumstances – here I was, lost in thought, when the loud report of a collision reached my ears – meant that the sound of the collision stayed with me for a long time.

Jaan Pill photo

I’ve written about this at a previous post. In the past, I would have found the post and provided a link to it. But like many people, I prefer to spend a limited amount of time online, and then I want to get off and go on to something more interesting.

To continue my story: One of the cars, leaking oil or transmission fluids, ended up being driven to the driveway south of the Fair Grounds coffee shop. The fluids left a readily evident trail from Lake Shore Blvd. West to the driveway. Over the following weeks and months, this trace of the collision gradually faded away. I documented the process, and the resulting jpeg files are scattered across a wide range of files, possibly never to be seen again.

Jaan Pill photo

I believe that one factor that mitigates against collisions, at this corner, is that fact that as soon as you see cars blocking the way, you as a car driver are inclined to slow down. That need to slow down, and determine how best to get out of the situation, without a dent, means (so far as I can see, and my observations are subject to error) that drivers tend to be quite careful, in this area.

Parking enforcement

According to a reliable source (the reliability of sources being a matter of interest to me, based on well over a half-century of writing and documenting), parking enforcement at Fortieth St. and Lake Shore Blvd. West has been steady in recent times. I mention that, in the event that such information may reach car drivers who like to park in the No Parking zones in this area.

How many drivers will find their way to this website, and take heed of this bit of information, I do not know. Who knows, who reads this stuff?

I also have information, from a reliable source, that the option of a One Way Street being set up for Fortieth St. is a remote possibility. However, any such decision, which would entail involvement of the Ward 6 Councillor’s Office, would require, as I understand, a high level of agreement among such area residents as would care to make their views known.