New Cycling Laws in Effect!
On September 1, 2015 a number of new fines came into effect that relate to cycling. We’re listing below all of the changes to Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act that relate to cycling and that are now in effect. Some of the changes are housekeeping – like allowing bicycles to travel on paved shoulders and have flashing red lights on the back of the bike – but most will require some changes in behaviour, for both motor vehicle drivers as well as people riding bikes.
For drivers:
Dooring: Dooring is not a huge issue in Greater Sudbury, but with more and more cyclists on the road, drivers need to be aware that they can severally injure a cyclist if they suddenly open their door and hit a person on a bike. The increased set fine is now $365, but could jump up to $1000. The offence carries a penalty of three demerit points. Drivers can also be charged for dooring another vehicle.
Passing: When passing a person on a bike, the driver of a motor vehicle overtaking a bicycle must maintain a distance of at least one metre, as nearly as practicable, between the vehicle and bicycle and must maintain that distance until they are safely past the bicycle. The one metre distance refers to the distance between the extreme right side of the motor vehicle and the extreme left side of the bicycle, including all projections and attachments.The penalty is $110 and two demerit points. Do this in a community safety zone, and the fine goes up to $180. Because people on bikes are usually riding about 1 meter from the curb or side of the road, as recommended by the Ministry of Transportation, that means that on most high-traffic roads in Greater Sudbury, car and truck drivers must move at least partially into the adjoining lane.
There has been some discussion in regards to what the “as nearly as practicable” means. The law has been interpreted in the following on the Ministry of Transportation’s Bicycle Safety website:
Q3: What if there isn’t enough room to allow for a one-metre passing distance? Can a vehicle cross the centre median line to pass the cyclist? A motorist may, if done safely, and in compliance with the rules of the road, cross the centre line of a roadway in order to pass a cyclist. If this cannot be done, he or she must wait behind the cyclist until it is safe to pass.
http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/safety/bicycle-safety.shtml
For cyclists:
Lights: Cyclists are now facing costly charges if they don’t properly light their bikes. At nighttime, 1/2 hour before dusk and 1/2 after dawn, and when there is insufficient light to see 150 meters in front, bicycles must have a lit white or amber light on the front, and a lit red light or reflector on the rear, along with white reflective tape on their front spokes and red reflective tape on the back spokes. The fine for not doing so has risen from $20 to $110. Cyclists are now permitted the use of flashing red lights as a safety feature on bicycles, which was previously prohibited. The flashing red light may be in addition to or instead of the red light or reflector on their rear that is currently required.
Riding on paved shoulders: Cyclists are now allowed to use the paved shoulders on unrestricted provincial highways instead of riding in the main lanes. The restricted highways are those included in regulation 630 and listed in http://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/900630.
Riding in crosswalks: This one may be a bit confusing at first. Cyclists are permitted to ride a bike along any crosswalk at any location. They cannot ride within a crosswalk at any intersection or at a location that’s not an intersection and that has a traffic control system. But they can ride within a crosswalk at a location other than an intersection, that doesn’t have a traffic control signal system. A traffic control system has no less than 3 coloured lenses and also includes a bicycle control signal.
Bicycle traffic control systems (lights): In locations where there are both bicycle traffic control signals and regular traffic control signals, people on bikes are required to obey the bicycle traffic control signals.
For municipalities:
Cycling the wrong way on one way streets: municipalities can now designate a bicycle lane on one-way streets that goes in the opposite direction from the motorized traffic.
I am so fed up of cyclists on the HWY 17 corridor that insist on riding on the right side of the white shoulder lane line where vehicles ride!
Just now on HWY 17 west I witnessed a cyclist with large saddle bags riding on the right side of the white line causing a transport driver to drive fully into the oncoming lane on a curve!!
What are we waiting for here? An innocent driver in the oncoming lane to be killed because of a cyclist!?
This happens often.
Cyclist are not licensed, have no insurance and pay no taxes toward maintaining our highways like licensed automobile drivers do. How can they be classified as a vehicle under the highway traffic act? This is ridiculous!! So what happens if a cyclist causes an accident? How can you seek damages for an accident that is their doing?
Cyslists should be limited to city streets, if the infrastructure provides it to be done safely, and not on Trans Canada highways.
So ridiculous!
mike mercieca, that transport driver was breaking the law, perhaps both him and you should read the Highway Traffic Act. Bicycles have been classified as vehicles for decades, safely passing any vehicle has been the law for decades. Bicycles are allowed on the Trans-Canada highway, with the exception being 400 class roadways. Thousands of people a year cycle across Canada and have been doing so for you guessed it, decades. Taxes which go towards highway construction are not collected specifically from drivers, all tax payers contribute to PUBLIC access ways. This annotation of the statute is mostly regarding the stipulation of a SAFE 1 meter gap when passing. The vast majority of the Trans-Canada Highway has paved shoulders and this is not such an issue, Highway 17 being one of the few exceptions, that’s Ontario for you.
I am a bicycle rider I also drive my SUV ,I stop at red lights with my bike.this is the law .
I get very mad at people on bicycles who just ride true a red light like it has nothing to do with them .
A bad one is The corner on York and Regent every day I see bikes driving through there and people have to put their brakes on for not to hit someone on a bike,the responsibility of the bike rider to stop is it not at a red light. This gives us other riders a very bad name ,but if the person on the bike gets hit when he’s going through a red light it’s the cars fault at least that’s what the guy on the bicycle is saying ,it’s not that they don’t stop but at the speed they are going they could not stop.
I believe you meant “forks”, not “spokes” when referring to reflective materials.