Changes to the highway traffic act

[Brian P]

Forum Sponsor

Speed limits in Europe are mostly 90 or 100 km/h on roads outside built-up areas which aren't motorways. The UK default national speed limit is 60 mph on single-carriageways and 70 mph on dual-carriageways. The penalties for exceeding the speed limits are more severe ... but the speed limits are generally higher than ours outside of built-up areas - and the urban set of restrictions starts at the actual edge of the built-up area, not hundreds of metres beyond it as is often done here. Speed limits in Germany generally feel about right - they're close to what most people would naturally drive on a road like that. Can't say that about ours ... most of them outside urban areas are about 20 km/h too low, sometimes more if the speed limit was arbitrarily reduced for political reasons. Europe is not immune to this but my own observations in Germany and Austria has been that most speed limits make sense.

Stop signs? There's not many of them. They use roundabouts (and yield/priority signs) instead. Roundabouts make everyone slow down but don't force anyone to stop unless actually necessary. No need for huge stop signs when the design of the roadway gets drivers to do the right things by design.

 

[justride]

Can you serve time (weekend jail) or do community service instead of paying the fines for people who cannot afford the fine?
Do they provide some sort of safe driving programs for driver charged with HTA 172?

 

[Dimitri]

Can you serve time (weekend jail) or do community service instead of paying the fines for people who cannot afford the fine?

As the adage goes ... Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

 

[Dimitri]

The UK default national speed limit is 60 mph on single-carriageways and 70 mph on dual-carriageways. The penalties for exceeding the speed limits are more severe ...

Doing 18km/h (11mph) over in a 50km/h (30mph) zone is a band B offence which is 100% of your weekly income and possibly 56 day suspension.

Based on average wage in the city, that would be a $1,270 fine and possible suspension infront of a judge.

Strict enforcement and stiff penalties make drivers so much more courteous.

 

[Fuzzbuster]

And remember section 173, no horse racing on the highway!

 

[justride]

As the adage goes ... Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

Can't pay the fine but can do the time - community services or enroll in a driver safety program. Are there no other alternatives?

The legendry

Sammy Davis jr​

 

[timtune]

Funny Robert Blake didn't have to do the time.

 

[justride]

Funny Robert Blake didn't have to do the time. timetune

the song has been updated to the current HTA172
Don't do the crime if don't have the dime!

 

[woot]

New rule says driver suspension for...

• 30km/h road = 70km/h
• 40km/h road = 80km/h
• 50km/h road = 90km/h
• 60km/h road = 100km/h
• 70km/h road = 110km/h

Sounds great actually. If you do manage to say do 80km/h in a 40km/h zone, perhaps a permanent driver's license suspension is in order.

My issue would be that I often will do 100km/h in an 80 but then you come down the hill into a place like Solina, Bailyboro, etc. and if you don't notice the sign you are going to loose your bike as they are usually waiting right behind the "60 begins" sign

 

[GreyGhost]

My issue would be that I often will do 100km/h in an 80 but then you come down the hill into a place like Solina, Bailyboro, etc. and if you don't notice the sign you are going to loose your bike as they are usually waiting right behind the "60 begins" sign

I also expect a lot more 70 km/h roads. Passing a dick on a windy 60 or 70 km/h road could be very difficult. They often add 30+ km/h when you get to a passing zone as they need to be in front.

EDIT

The interesting side effect of this law is you likely face a much lower penalty for passing in a corner than you do for passing where it's safe. They could still hit you with racing for passing in a corner but there is a good chance you get fail to stay in marked lane or similar. Now, passing in a corner has a higher likelihood of you becoming a hood ornament so there is that.

 

[Priller]

I also expect a lot more 70 km/h roads. Passing a dick on a windy 60 or 70 km/h road could be very difficult. They often add 30+ km/h when you get to a passing zone as they need to be in front.

Not sure about here, but in BC the RCMP were notorious for setting up speed traps at the end of passing zones in the mountains. They'd literally have tow trucks lined up to deal with all the impounds (>40 over on any road gets you the golden ticket there) from folks desperately trying to get around all the straight line heroes and RV's in the summer...

They also love setting up traps near the bottom of steep hills to hammer anyone coasting down. There's one hill on Boundary Road between Vancouver and Burnaby where they even built a pull-out just for the cops to set up and hand out easy fines:

Google Maps

I really like how California does it, at least in theory. Before being allowed to set up a speed trap, the police have to show that there is a higher incidence of crashes in that location and that there is a safety purpose to the enforcement, not just stat padding or a cash grab...

 

[Dimitri]

My issue would be that I often will do 100km/h in an 80 but then you come down the hill into a place like Solina, Bailyboro, etc. and if you don't notice the sign you are going to loose your bike as they are usually waiting right behind the "60 begins" sign

Sounds like an inability to control your vehicle and follow posted speed limits.

If it was up to me we'd be like Germany. 26km/h over and 1 month suspension. But at 51km/h I'd stick a 6 month suspension.

 

[GreyGhost]

Sounds like an inability to control your vehicle and follow posted speed limits.

If it was up to me we'd be like Germany. 26km/h over and 1 month suspension. But at 51km/h I'd stick a 6 month suspension.

Does germany set speed limits based on your proximity to where a politician (or donor) lives? If speed limits were set based on engineering, not politics (eg. 85th percentile speed), I would rarely speed. Road design sets the natural comfortable speed, not a number on a sign. For whatever reason, in north america, municipalities have chosen to design roads for comfortable travel well above the initial posted speed limit and then reduce that speed limit over time to further widen the gap between legal speed and road design speed.

 

[Mikedezo44]

Great, now all of the mafia tow yards can cash in even more with longer extortion impound fees! Seems to be the only people benefiting from this new change.
Why can't the city of Toronto (or wherever) buy a piece of property and fence it in and run their own impound yard at more reasonable rates? I guess it goes back to that lack of critical thinking post on the first page.

I agree with others It sure is frustrating most of the country roads around Hamilton down to 60. Gotta love how we all need to be held by the hand now.

 

[woot]

I was heading to Pembroke yesterday to pick up a rolling v-star chassis (future electric bike) and saw a cop perched up on a rock-cut with a radar where the passing lane ends on 17 followed by 5 people pulled over. Considering how dense traffic was they were obviously just out there to make money. Within a km everyone would have been going the same speed as one another.

Sounds like an inability to control your vehicle and follow posted speed limits.

If it was up to me we'd be like Germany. 26km/h over and 1 month suspension. But at 51km/h I'd stick a 6 month suspension.

sounds to me like you should move to Germany. Politicians can barely get the public to buy into photo radar here. There is no apatite here for that crap. How many people have been negatively affected by HTA 172 vs how many lives have been saved. My guess would be that zero lives have been saved.

 

[Dimitri]

Does germany set speed limits based on your proximity to where a politician (or donor) lives? If speed limits were set based on engineering, not politics (eg. 85th percentile speed), I would rarely speed.

Germany except for the Autobaun has similar speed limits to us.

In town is 50km/h, but residential and school areas are 30km/h unlike our 40km/h zones.

While rural roads have a maximum speed of 100km/h, going through intersections it drops to 70km/h or 80km/h. And many of these roads like Avenue and other scenic routes are all limited to 70km/h. As are any rural roads narrower then 6m (two lanes) are limited to 80km/h since 2015.

 

[Freddy F]

I was heading to Pembroke yesterday to pick up a rolling v-star chassis (future electric bike) and saw a cop perched up on a rock-cut with a radar where the passing lane ends on 17 followed by 5 people pulled over. Considering how dense traffic was they were obviously just out there to make money. Within a km everyone would have been going the same speed as one another.

A few years ago I got hammered by a jerkoff OPP up there, 2 different fines, cost me something like 450 bucks. It was clearly a grab or whatever you wanna call it......I tried explaining things to the cop but he seemed to be on some kind of amphetamine and had ZERO interest to what I had to say...one of the fines was failing to move to the left when approaching an emergency vehicle on the shoulder (him)....I did move over about half a lane but could not move over more than that due to high speed oncoming traffic.....they have nothing better to do up there, not to mention, everyone getting nailed are out-of-towners...(he could tell by my vehicle I wasn't from around there) and out-of-towners like me are not going to travel all the way back to Pembroke to fight the questionable charges in court.

 

[Fuzzbuster]

I fought a ticket in Timmins a long while ago! I phoned the prosecutor and said that would be no way I could make it to court. So I jumped on my bike and rode there. Well, I guess he told the cop that I wouldn’t be there because he was down the street at timmies! Judge was ******, questioned the prosecutor as to his whereabouts! I said thanks and took a picture on my way out! It was great! Rode very slow leaving town! Out of town tickets, simply mean a road trip it required! Just make sure to phone ahead!

 

[Lightcycle]

I fought a ticket in Timmins a long while ago! I phoned the prosecutor and said that would be no way I could make it to court. So I jumped on my bike and rode there. Well, I guess he told the cop that I wouldn’t be there because he was down the street at timmies! Judge was ******, questioned the prosecutor as to his whereabouts! I said thanks and took a picture on my way out! It was great! Rode very slow leaving town! Out of town tickets, simply mean a road trip it required! Just make sure to phone ahead!

Cops sometimes schedule a whole bunch of court cases in a row, so if you weren't the only one that day, the cop would have been there regardless, knocking off the other cases he had scheduled before and after yours.

Glad it worked out for you, but no guarantee this will work for everyone.

 

[Fuzzbuster]

This was in timmins, I was the only one in the court room! Not much goes on there!

Forum Sponsor