Of the thousands of daily Canada Line commuters, some still risk having their vehicles before jumping on the train.

“We’re not trying to be mean and nasty, but we have to have parking for our customers,” said Barbara Phillips, general manager of Lansdowne Centre shopping mall.

Lansdowne has one of the few expansive parking lots along the Canada Line route that some commuters are trying to use as a park-and-ride. Phillips said the recent inclement weather has created a new group of would be parking-cheats.

Lansdowne gives offenders a warning ticket before calling the tow company.

“When people realize what the problem is, most of them do comply. But we estimated this would be at least a six month learning curve,” she said, noting many offenders are unaware designated Canada Line parking is available at River Rock Casino Resort.

Since the 98 B-Line bus service was taken out of service early September, commuters have been taking an average of 80,000 trips on the Canada Line each day, according to Jason Chan of line operator ProTrans BC.

Some are using the 1,200 parking spaces at River Rock, available to transit users at a cost of $2 per day.

River Rock spokesperson Howard Blank said transit commuters have generally been following the rules, adding riders appreciate the availability of covered parking at a reasonable cost.

In an agreement with transit operators, the casino guarantees the spaces for transit riders from 5:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. on business days. Few commuters have been trying to cheat the system and park for free in the casino’s other parkade, said Blank.

“We have some outstanding security measures in place that prevent that,” he said. “We’ve spent a long time educating the public where to park, and we haven’t seen a huge problem there, simply because of the way we’re patrolling our lots.”

The casino is also keeping tabs on vehicles to ensure they don’t overstay their welcome.

“It’s not long-term parking for YVR,” he said.

Aberdeen Centre spokesperson Danny Leung said commuters using parking at that mall hasn’t been a big problem.

“Obviously there’s some impact, but on the positive side, I see more and more staff working in the shopping mall taking transit, and that frees up the parking too.”

Bylaw officers haven’t noticed an increase in illegal parking on city streets, but they have seen more unsafe stops on No. 3 Road as a result of the Canada Line. As a result, new five-minute pick-up/drop-off zones are at the Richmond-Brighouse and Bridgeport stations, said city spokesperson Cynthia Lockrey.