Quick guide to Ontario’s new fines
A whole wagonload of driving rules and regulations and fines and penalties came into force this week, so I thought that today we would have a little review, just to make sure everybody’s onside.
Of course — and as usual — this is all aimed (or mostly aimed) at the automobile driver. That more and more cyclists are on the road and — with a few exceptions — constantly break every traffic law known to man doesn’t seem to have crossed the mind of the Ontario provincial government.
Cyclists have money, too, which a lot of this is all about, but since vehicle drivers are so used to getting it in the ear at every corner, they’re the only ones in the crosshairs these days.
Speaking of money and car drivers, it is now only a matter of time before the Pan Am HOV lanes become the norm. The fact that about a third of the price of a litre of fuel to run our cars and trucks is tax apparently isn’t enough. Soon we will pay to drive on the roads we already paid for.
The 407 was built as a toll road (as is the 407 extension out in Durham Region) and I have no problem with that. It’s what’s coming that I resent. So, to return to the subject of this bit. Here is what to look out for as a result of those changes I mentioned.
First: passing cyclists too closely. You must leave a one-metre space when passing a cyclist or you will be handed a $110 ticket and lose two demerit points. This would not be necessary if there were bicycle lanes everywhere, as I urged in a column published in July.
Of course, if there are no bike lanes, and a traffic officer happens to look up as you are passing a cyclist and estimates that you have not given that rider the required amount of space, you are instantly guilty. So be careful out there. Here is one that drives me crazy, and has for years. You are driving along and a police car, with lights flashing, has got someone pulled over. It is only common sense, I think, to leave a lane open between your car and the police car — unless you are hemmed right in and can’t pull out far enough. At which point you should slow down as you pass the traffic stop.
Not enough people do, apparently, so they had to legislate it. And if you don’t do what you should have been doing since you got your licence, they will ding you for $490.
(And by the way, there’s a victim’s Norris McDonald
You now must leave a one-metre space when passing a cyclist or face a $110 ticket
surcharge on top of all these fines, which works out to 30 per cent on top of any fine imposed. So that $490, for instance, will become $612 when the surcharge is tacked on.)
So get with the program, people. It alarms me the number of motorists who don’t seem to know about this.
And then there’s a new fine for dooring cyclists (how about looking in your mirror before putting your car in gear?) and for distracted driving (I have no sympathy for anybody so stupid as to text while driving). Many of the “new” laws — like the one requiring bicycles to have a headlight and a tail light — have been around forever, but the fines are new.
So it’s all about the money — as usual. But there is a way to fight back: behave yourself and don’t get any tickets and then you won’t have to pay.
Simple, eh? Norris McDonald is editor of Toronto Star Wheels. Reach him at: nmcdonald@thestar.ca