Toronto city councillors have voted in favour of increasing fines for more than 100 parking violations in the city.

“There is an option for every citizen of Toronto and that is to park legally and not pay the fine,” Councillor Jennifer McKelvie explained during Wednesday’s session of council, “So we will have some pushback that the fines are too high or the fines are too low. But what we really want is if we didn’t collect any money on parking offenses in the City of Toronto it would be a good day because everyone would be following the rules of the road.”

McKelvie, who chairs the Infrastructure and Environment Committee, introduced a motion that revised some of the penalty amounts in the initial staff report.

The fines go into effect August 1st.

As examples, the penalty for failing to pay the required fee at parking machines increases from $30 to $50. The fine for parking in a bike lane increases from $150 to $200.

Councillors also ordered the general manager of transportation services to review all parking fines in five years and report back on those amounts adjusted for inflation.

According to the report, the current fines are out of step with the penalties for parking violations in nearby municipalities.