As hundreds of families chose to head to the beach to close out the long weekend, many had to contend with fighting through traffic to access Bluffer’s Park and Beach in Scarborough.
Traffic troubles started bright and early on Monday as Toronto police officers and City of Toronto staff were already turning people away by 9 a.m. due to parking lots being full.
Many first-time visitors said they were surprised by the barricades, which caused many to walk the 1.5-kilometre distance instead.
City staff and police said they have their hands full directing traffic.
“There’s five of us here today,” Toronto police Const. John Hall told Global News on Monday.
“They arrange for us to be here because of the problems with the overflow of parking. We have a police car here blocking the southbound lanes and eventually it will open up once people start to come out and then we allow people in for maybe an hour.”
There such a high demand to get to this beach the TTC runs a weekend and holiday shuttle service from the top of the hill and Kennedy station.
If you strike out on parking, the TTC isn’t your only option. Police also allowed Uber and Lyft vehicles as well as taxis to go down to pick-up and drop-off visitors.
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A local church group got to the park at around 7 a.m. to be sure they had prime real estate for their youth picnic.
“At first when came here we saw the sign that the parking was already full, so we thought that the park would be full at any moment,” Pastor James Baudista said.
And for some families on Monday, it was their second attempt after learning the hard way how busy the beach can get.
“We came last weekend and it was also early, and around 10:30 we arrived here and and couldn’t find a space to park,so we went back,” Flourance Khaliqr said.
“Today, (it’s) lucky we arrived around 9:30 so we were able to find a space. But maybe if we were 20 minutes late, we lost our chance today too.”