Driving in Toronto is no picnic, but there's really never any excuse to dangerously cruise through a protected bike lane, unnecessarily putting cyclists at risk. 

It's already a stupid and selfish move on its own, but using a cycling path as your own personal HOV lane makes even less sense if you have multiple clear lanes at your disposal. And it goes a few notches further on the facepalm scale when there are uniformed cops standing in plain view.

That's precisely what happened in the westbound bike lane of Gerrard Street between Yonge and Bay this week when a dumbfoundingly dunce driver decided that the clear lanes of the roadway were for the plebeians, instead choosing to cruise their beater minivan through the protected cycling path for an entire block as if it was some kind of presidential limo.

Parking enforcement officers were already on the scene, and stood recording the incident in utter disbelief.

In a video posted to TikTok and Twitter, Toronto Parking Enforcement Officer Erin Urquhart explains, "Me and my coworker were standing on the corner with our bikes parked on the sidewalk, when we saw this happen."

The short clip then shows the minivan driver casually rolling along the bike lane, half on the sidewalk, before coming to a stop at the northeast corner of Bay and Gerrard, topping off the daring dash with an illegal parking offence.

Happy Thursday, oh #bikeTO …This one takes the cake. This van drove up nearly entire block from Yonge- Bay in the very clearly barrier bike lane on Gerrard 🤦🏼‍♀️ then proceeded to park illegally. You know I did what I had to do… $150 served. @ParkingTPS pic.twitter.com/I8hPqFUlyY

— PEO Erin Urquhart (@TPS_BikeHart) March 31, 2022

A caption on the video states that the "driver did not care about ticket as made no effort to move when told before issuing ticket." It cost the dangerous driver $150, and they didn't even save any time by cutting into the bike lane.

One commenter on Twitter asked Urquhart if the driver had anything to offer in the way of an excuse. And I'm just going to stop and issue a trigger warning for all Toronto cyclists. This response will undoubtedly make your blood boil with anger.

“ but there were no cyclist” 🤯😳

— PEO Erin Urquhart (@TPS_BikeHart) April 1, 2022

Cycling infrastructure is under constant threat in this city, whether through political pressure from motorists who commute in and out of car-centric areas or from actual physical threats like vehicles not respecting bike lanes or traffic rules meant to protect vulnerable cyclists.

Driving through a bike lane to park on the sidewalk in front of a convenience store is such an outrageously egregious disregard for safety, and it should go without saying that the absence of a cyclist in a lane doesn't give a driver carte blanche to just take it for themselves.