Months after the City of Toronto began its rush-hour parking crackdown, it seems some drivers still aren't getting the message.

Introduced in January as a solution to help ease gridlock in the city, the then-new approach to illegally parked vehicles along key rush-hour roads meant increased fines for drivers or getting their vehicles towed – no exception.

"Whether you're a courier company or a member of the public, there's zero-tolerance" Brian Moniz, a Toronto Police Parking Enforcement supervisor, told CTV Toronto on Wednesday.

In the first month of enforcing the parking rule, the city tagged nearly 7,915 vehicles and towed more than 1,340. Those numbers dropped severely in February when the number of tickets that were issued decreased by about 2,000.

But it seems overhauling driver behaviour isn’t as easy as writing up a ticket or towing a vehicle.

Once the media spotlight on the blitz died down, the number of infractions shot right back up. In July, nearly 8,000 vehicles were tagged and more than 1,500 were towed – that's more than the number of infractions at the beginning of the year.

The number of violations was particularly high in the west end, where about 2,500 vehicles were towed and more than 10,000 rush-hour tickets were issued between January and July.

In addition to a spike in infractions, the city also continues to tow vehicles belonging to 30 and 40 repeat offenders daily. These drivers have already been issued three or more tickets but continue to park wherever they want.

According to Moniz, there's a shortage of parking spots in the city that may be contributing to the problem.

"There's increase development within our city that translates to a lack of parking spaces," he explained.

But a lack of parking spots or not, the city is hoping to eventually change driver behaviour. On Monday, the city will embark on another illegal parking blitz.

"Those who want to park illegally during rush hour, they’re going to be penalized," Coun. Jaye Robinson said. "It takes a long time to shift driver behaviour. This is a big city and we just simply can't tolerate people parking illegally during peak hours."

With a report from CTV Toronto's Colin D'Mello