I was cycling around the Ottawa West neighborhood the other day: Northwestern, Cowley, Patricia, Carleton.
This long lineup of parked cars is on the roadside parking lot where a neighborhood path goes under the Ottawa River Commuter Expressway. Once on the path, I looked for all these people, but the area was deserted.
Alas, they were just the abandonned bits of personal transporters left behind by cubicle farmers at Tunney’s Pasture. Free parking, no posted time limit.
Used to live around the corner and bike through there every day (in the good seasons), and there were always at least a couple of cars parked there whose owners were walking their dogs on the little trails through the "woods" between that parking on Pontiac, Island Park and the ORP/Commuter Expwy. But you're right, I bet the vast majority of the cars pictured belong to cubicle farmers in Tunney's Pasture. I must admit that I don't remember seeing that many cars lined up at one time, I wonder if they assume (know?) that the enforcement is lax in mid-summer? (they may also all work some "compressed" 9:30-4:30 days in the summer — not uncommon! — so I might have just been too early and too late to see them on the way to and from the office)
I used to work at Tunney's, and I heard of this place. It was always spoken of in hushed tones… the magical place that isn't really for parking, but you can park there for free and won't get a ticket. Is there a public park by there? The legend spoke of a park.
See the picture: park (NCC) to the left all the way to the Ottawa River; to the right, a community park.