Police busted drivers 1,735 times for misusing HOV lanes during the Pan Am Games.

Police also issued 2,000 tickets for other Highway Traffic Act violations on the 1,600 kilometre Games Route Network from June 29 to July 26.

“When you look at the number of charges itself, they’re not excessive,” said Staff-Sgt. Devin Kealey. “Basically just over 100 tickets per day.”

Fines for HOV violations range from $85 on Toronto’s highways to $110 on provincial roads, but Kealey could not give a total dollar amount for the fines as the data was not broken down by jurisdiction.

In all, Kealey said the Integrated Security Unit reached its goal of providing a safe, quick, reliable network for the Games.

“There were no athletes, for example, that didn’t get to compete for a gold medal because they were caught up in traffic,” he said, adding there were no serious or fatal collisions either.

“If you had listened to what people were talking about on talk radio and social media at the beginning of the Games you would have thought our city was not going to get anywhere during that time frame and obviously that wasn’t the case.”

Metrolinx reported faster travel times for GO bus users thanks to the lanes and some carpoolers boasted of quicker commutes than ever.

Despite reports that the HOV lanes were zooming, speeding tickets were not disproportionately represented in the non-HOV charges.

“We’d be looking at seatbelts, distracted driving, unsafe lane changes,” Kealey said.

The lanes remain until Aug. 18, but the restrictions have been loosened allowing drivers with just one extra passenger use of the 235 kilometres of temporary lanes.

“We’re hoping the public will again step up and make sure that the Parapan Games can keep moving, and we can keep the region moving.”

The Parapan Am Games run Aug. 7 to 15.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Originally the police planned to release numbers only after the Parapan Am Games, but increased media attention spurred Thursday’s release.

“For example, our R.I.D.E. program at Christmas time, there’s usually periodic releases of information just to give everyone an idea of where it’s at,” Kealey said. “We’re not normally putting out daily news releases on what the stats were on the night before.”