Most Toronto blocks have a time limit even when nothing is posted. The signs you do see - 15 minute, 1 hour, 2 hour - are overrides of a citywide default that catches out drivers who assume no sign means no rule.
"Within the City of Toronto, an unsigned maximum three-hour parking limit exists on public roads unless there is signage posted indicating otherwise."
That is the whole trap. An empty stretch of residential street with no sign on it is not unrestricted parking - it is three-hour parking. Leave the car there through a working day and the ticket is legitimate even though you never passed a sign.
A posted limit replaces the default, and it can go either way: shorter, as with the 15 minute and 1 hour signs outside shops and clinics, or structured around a time window that only applies on certain days or hours. Read the whole sign - the limit and the window are two separate pieces of information, and a limit that only runs 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. says nothing about the overnight rules on that block.
Where several signs stack on one pole, each panel applies to the hours written on it. The strictest one in force at the moment you park is the one that matters.
Permit holders are exempt from the 1, 2 and 3 hour restrictions on streets they hold a permit for, and may park overnight there. Everyone else is subject to the posted limit, or to the three-hour default where nothing is posted.
A time limit also does not protect you from anything else on the block. A three-hour allowance means nothing during a rush-hour No Stopping window or a street cleaning ban - those restrictions sit on top of it.
Rules on this page follow the City of Toronto's published parking regulations. Signage varies block by block - always read the sign in front of you. See every sign in one place on the Toronto parking signs guide.
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