If you are planning to pick someone up at Pearson International Airport, you may want to be careful where you park.
Starting today, the airport will be issuing a $75 invoice to anyone stopped illegally on the roadways leading up to the airport’s terminals.
The invoices will be issued through the mail as part of the airport’s new “mobile payment notice program,” wherein two camera-equipped vehicles will be patrolling Pearson roadways and photographing the licence plates of any vehicles deemed to be parked illegally.
While vehicles will still be allowed to pick up and drop off passengers in designated areas outside the terminals, the airport is now urging drivers to park in one of two designated “cell phone lots” to await a call from the person that they are picking up. Drivers can then proceed to the curbside area outside the terminals.
In a explanation posted to its website, Pearson International Airport said that the hope is to provide drivers with a safe place to wait while discouraging “the unsafe practice of parking on the roadsides around the terminals.”
"What we've noticed is when people park on the roadsides leading in to the terminals, they're actually blocking a portion of a live line, so this is of course that is a safety hazard," said Ryan White, a spokes person for the Greater Toronto Airport Authority.
White also said that the "invoice" will not impact a drivers insurance or driving record.
The two cell phone lots can accommodate a total of 266 vehicles and will be free to use so long as drivers remain in their vehicles.
