Kyle Ashley, Toronto’s famous bike lane guardian, spotted the Canada Post truck veer into a lane on St. George St. The driver spotted the parking enforcement officer.

“He jumped out of the truck, trampling a garden, and asked me for two minutes to make his delivery. I said, ‘No, this is a bike lane, you should park legally.’ He called me a jerk, got in his vehicle and drove off to avoid the ticket.”

On Friday, another Canada Post driver on Runnymede St. pleaded in vain for leniency before he told Ashley: “You’re a f------ idiot,” said the parking officer. Ashley later lodged a complaint.

Ashley has seen a lot in the seven weeks since he started focusing exclusively on lane invaders, unleashing $150 tickets as he pedals around town using social media to spread the word that bike lanes are not convenient pull-over shoulders for motorists who have other options that don’t force cyclists into vehicle traffic.

He estimates up to 90 per cent of his tickets land on the windshields of delivery vehicles, including those of courier companies FedEx, Purolator and UPS.

In his experience, however, Canada Post — the nation’s mail mover, a Crown corporation — is the worst offender.

“Of all the ones who are still holding out from engaging in the positive behaviours that we’ve started seeing from Beck Taxi, Mister Produce and others, the one that I’m still seeing the most infractions coming from would be Canada Post,” Ashley said.

“The flagrant disregard for the bike lanes is strongest from them. I don’t know if they think they have impunity because the trucks say Canada Post, or if they just don’t care about the public image or the public safety.”

Ashley said two Canada Post drivers recently told him they were told it “‘was OK to block the bike lane and get the parking ticket so long as they weren’t in (front of) fire hydrants or (getting) accessible parking tickets.’ That’s obviously not true. I’ve ticketed city vehicles for parking in a bike lane.”

He advises delivery drivers who can’t find a legal spot to park in an alleyway, as long as they don’t block it, or block a live lane of vehicle traffic if other vehicles can go around it. Cyclists have only one lane.

Mayor John Tory called a Canada Post manager Wednesday after being asked for comment for this story.

“I asked if he could help the city by making clear to people that we really can’t have this going on,” Tory said. “He said that, as a result of a media inquiry they had already picked up on this and sent out a note (to drivers) and were taking it very seriously.”

Ashley said Thursday that, after a couple of days with noticeably fewer bike lane breaches, Canada Post’s numbers had started to rise again.

Jon Hamilton, a senior Canada Post spokesperson, said from Ottawa that drivers are instructed to follow the rules of the road and are shown photos of parking examples—good and bad—shared by Ashley and others on social media.

The postal operator is constantly examining routes and making other changes to cope with the demands of a rapidly growing city and ongoing surge in delivery demand caused by e-commerce, he said.

“The vast majority of our drivers don’t have issues. They go the extra mile to find a spot,” in Toronto, he said.

“We are making changes, and we are talking to our drivers, and we expect them to follow the rules of the road.

“At the same time, there are challenges, and it’s a balance, and there are a lot of people who depend on Canada Post and the work we do so we can’t just make instant changes that have a huge impact on the small businesses that rely on us or the people that have ordered stuff they need, sometimes medicine and things like that.”

David Turnbull of the Canadian Courier & Logistics Association, representing members including FedEx and Purolator, blamed the City of Toronto for “dragging its feet” in creating a sufficient number of courier delivery zones so couriers have an alternative to bike lanes.

“To have commerce in this city, you have to have deliveries,” he said. “I’m as frustrated as any cyclist.”

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One reason companies can treat such tickets as a cost of doing business is the city’s “global resolution” process. Companies with many tickets can get some cancelled, and pay a fraction of the total possible fine, in exchange for not subjecting the city to court costs and proving they were on delivery.

Tickets that cannot be cancelled under the process include those for parking too close to fire hydrants or in disabled spots.

The global resolution process will continue after next month when the city expects to move its parking tickets out of the provincial court system and into a city-run administrative penalty system where screening officers will decide which delivery company tickets’ can be cancelled.

The new system will offer a benefit for keeping bike lanes clear. Drivers who now leave illegal spots before a parking officer can affix the ticket to their vehicle don’t have to pay it. Under the new system, such drivers will receive tickets in the mail and face the same fines.

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