New trend?

[Evoex]

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Precisely.

On Sunday I saw a Yamaha 600 without a license plate lane splitting on the 404 north, was passed by a guy easily going 160+ on the right shoulder, and watched someone make a left turn on the red after entering the intersection at the end of the yellow (through traffic stopped on our side, no oncoming from opposite) with a cop sitting in the opposite left turn lane of the intersection who did NOTHING. Likely on his cell phone.

It's anarchy leading to chaos on the roads, leading to our outrageous insurance rates.

I had a York Region cop as a student once and I asked him why they let this nonsense go down at intersections. He told me it's frowned upon by officers because the risk of causing another accident by unexpectedly trying to force their way into the intersection to chase is too high.

 

[AFJ]

I had a York Region cop as a student once and I asked him why they let this nonsense go down at intersections. He told me it's frowned upon by officers because the risk of causing another accident by unexpectedly trying to force their way into the intersection to chase is too high.

I would think that activation of the cruiser's siren and flashing lights would halt everything in the intersection as well as stop the car doing the left turn on the red light.
AFJ

 

[GreyGhost]

I would think that activation of the cruiser's siren and flashing lights would halt everything in the intersection as well as stop the car doing the left turn on the red light.
AFJ

You have a far higher opinion of drivers than I do.

Here's a lit up ambulance getting smoked in Markham.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1503788663831628

EDIT:
Stouffville Friday at 6pm. 26 yo newmarket man driving SUV charged with careless.

"
York Regional Police confirmed to INsauga that it happened at the intersection of Warden Avenue and Stouffville Road in Whitchurch-Stouffville.
Emergency crews responded to the scene at around 6 p.m. on Friday.
The video, which appears to be filmed from the dashcam of another vehicle, shows the ambulance with its lights activated. There isn’t any audio on the video, so it’s not clear if the siren was on.
The ambulance appears to stop at a red light, before proceeding through the intersection.
Most vehicles come to a complete stop as the ambulance goes through the intersection. However, one — which police said was a GMC Yukon — doesn’t stop in time, swerves to avoid one of the stopped vehicles, and smashes into the ambulance.
The ambulance then flips onto its side.
Police said no serious injuries were reported. Two paramedics suffered minor injuries but didn’t go to hospital.
A 26-year-old Newmarket man has been has been charged with careless driving."

 

[Evoex]

I would think that activation of the cruiser's siren and flashing lights would halt everything in the intersection as well as stop the car doing the left turn on the red light.
AFJ

Yeah right. I've seen someone block an ambulance and give them the finger when they got the sirens to give way.

 

[Evoex]

You have a far higher opinion of drivers than I do.

Here's a lit up ambulance getting smoked in Markham.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1503788663831628

Bingo

 

[PrivatePilot]

It's anarchy leading to chaos on the roads, leading to our outrageous insurance rates.

Hold onto your hats. It's got crazy since the beginning of covid, and unchecked, it's going to get a lot, lot worse.

Of course, by then, the cost of the insane level of increased policing needed to bring things back into check (if they even bother) will far exceed any costs that could be incurred *today* to keep it in check instead.

Plus, the political willpower on a lot of fronts won't be popular amongst the voters, and since politicians seem to be unable to make decisions that don't "feed the base" anymore, it'll be a tough pill for them to swallow. Can you imagine a future premiere coming along and saying that they're going to insanely tighten drivers licencing testing and experience (one of our biggest problems is that they currently give away DL's to anyone with a pulse and a crayon), insanely tighten up traffic policing including things like putting photo radar back on the highways and traffic police everywhere (political suicide, no matter how much its needed), and other things needed to convince people that they need to start driving in a civilized fashion again (big $$ tickets isntead of slaps on the wrist that are dismissed half the time, an actual chance of being busted for idiocy each and every time they drive), etc? Yeah, political suicide indeed.

 

[AFJ]

I guess times have changed - and people with them, eh?

I went - recently - for my 80+ driving licence test. Was told when registering by 'phone that it would be a 1.5 hour session of video, discussion, vision test and written test. I spent a week of preparation reading the official Drivers, Motorcyclists, and Test questions handbooks. (About 350 pages of Ontario gov't publications on preparing for written driving exams.)

Got there a few minutes ahead of the appointed time. There was a minute or so check of my peripheral vision on a machine, I was handed a paper copy of a clock face with hands at 10 minutes after 11 o'clock and asked to draw this picture on a second sheet of paper. Another minute to do that, handed in the copy, told I had passed and then told to go and renew my driver's licence a the local licence office.
Which I did. $48 for the 2 year renewal. A "90 minute session" took all of 5 minutes?

I wonder what the test is like for new drivers?

I did some reading up on the "Clock face at 11.10 test", which is apparently a "70% accurate determination of dementia" according to one scientific research report.

AFJ

 

[mimico_polak]

Sounds like a good case to be made to increase policing budget again…

Which I’d be ok with if we could actually see some results.

The roads are chaos.

Speaking of ambulances…I can’t even count how many times I see people tailgating ambulances on the 400 series in order to get through traffic faster.

 

[GreyGhost]

I did some reading up on the "Clock face at 11.10 test", which is apparently a "70% accurate determination of dementia" according to one scientific research report.

AFJ

Seeing the weird clocks that some brain conditions cause is fascinating.

 

[PrivatePilot]

A "90 minute session" took all of 5 minutes?

Reminds me of the inspection I had to get done for our imported RV a few weeks ago. It's supposed to be an actual inspection. I was literally lounging IN the trailer because I arrived a half hour early. The inspection time came and went and a half hour afterwards I went inside and asked if they were running behind schedule. "Oh, yeah, it's already done, here's your paperwork, we were looking for you". I didn't even hear or see the person walk around the trailer despite sitting there with the doors and windows open. They certainly never asked me to even turn on the lights and signals etc.

Sounds like a good case to be made to increase policing budget again…

Which I’d be ok with if we could actually see some results.

Yeah, that's going to require political willpower as well. IMHO we should have a separate traffic-police segment that only does HTA enforcement, heck, give peace officers or special constables the required powers if they wanted - Conservation Officers have pretty broad powers and their job is far from traffic policing, so it's a good example of it being possible. There's no crossover between other aspects of policing that way and they can dedicate all their time to traffic. Hell, with the number of tickets they could easily write every day I'm pretty sure it would be entirely self funding the first few years for that matter.

 

[GreyGhost]

Reminds me of the inspection I had to get done for our imported RV a few weeks ago. It's supposed to be an actual inspection. I was literally lounging IN the trailer because I arrived a half hour early. The inspection time came and went and a half hour afterwards I went inside and asked if they were running behind schedule. "Oh, yeah, it's already done, here's your paperwork, we were looking for you". I didn't even hear or see the person walk around the trailer despite sitting there with the doors and windows open. They certainly never asked me to even turn on the lights and signals etc.



Yeah, that's going to require political willpower as well. IMHO we should have a separate traffic-police segment that only does HTA enforcement, heck, give peace officers or special constables the required powers if they wanted - Conservation Officers have pretty broad powers and their job is far from traffic policing, so it's a good example of it being possible. There's no crossover between other aspects of policing that way and they can dedicate all their time to traffic. Hell, with the number of tickets they could easily write every day I'm pretty sure it would be entirely self funding the first few years for that matter.

The complicated factor is traffic stops are one of the higher risk activities that cops undertake. Daily, people are pulled over for traffic violations that are armed and/or willing to risk lives to avoid disclosing their identity to police. Sadly, imo traffic cops should be armed. Use special constables and the like to free up police time by running collision reporting center, tanking reports, etc where paying cops 150K to do the job with zero risk and low skill required is epically stupid.

 

[PrivatePilot]

The complicated factor is traffic stops are one of the higher risk activities that cops undertake. Daily, people are pulled over for traffic violations that are armed and/or willing to risk lives to avoid disclosing their identity to police. Sadly, imo traffic cops should be armed. Use special constables and the like to free up police time by running collision reporting center, tanking reports, etc where paying cops 150K to do the job with zero risk and low skill required is epically stupid.

As Premieres past and present have sometimes gleefully demonstrated, changing or overriding laws to fit their needs (or sometimes whims) is usually just a stroke of pen away.

Doing exactly that to arm Special Constables for HTA enforcement would be far from insurmountable. Perhaps even easy - a quick Google search on the topic even mentions it's entirely possible already with adequate training, even mentioning Niagara Parks officers at one point, of all people.

 

[xrljoel]

Reminds me of the inspection I had to get done for our imported RV a few weeks ago. It's supposed to be an actual inspection. I was literally lounging IN the trailer because I arrived a half hour early. The inspection time came and went and a half hour afterwards I went inside and asked if they were running behind schedule. "Oh, yeah, it's already done, here's your paperwork, we were looking for you". I didn't even hear or see the person walk around the trailer despite sitting there with the doors and windows open. They certainly never asked me to even turn on the lights and signals etc.



Yeah, that's going to require political willpower as well. IMHO we should have a separate traffic-police segment that only does HTA enforcement, heck, give peace officers or special constables the required powers if they wanted - Conservation Officers have pretty broad powers and their job is far from traffic policing, so it's a good example of it being possible. There's no crossover between other aspects of policing that way and they can dedicate all their time to traffic. Hell, with the number of tickets they could easily write every day I'm pretty sure it would be entirely self funding the first few years for that matter.

I second the idea of a Highway Patrol for Ontario.

The first time I was ever pulled over on a MC was by CP Rail Police. And the second time.

I lived near the CP line in Cherrywood.

 

[AFJ]

Seeing the weird clocks that some brain conditions cause is fascinating.

It might be "fascinating" but ...... How many people these days have anything but digital clocks in their house, car, office, bedroom, on their computer, on their wrist, or in any other location?
And how many of the church, city hall, or other public "Clocks" have all the numbers on them? In my recollection they may have a 12, 3, 6 and 9, the rest of the numerals being replaced by simple lines?

But my real concern, as a motorcyclist these days, is the disregard for posted speed limits on all the roads - highways, back roads, urban streets particularly. Drivers don't seem to remember that "the higher the speed, the longer the distance it takes to stop, or slow up enough to make the curve."

AFJ

 

[GreyGhost]

It might be "fascinating" but ...... How many people these days have anything but digital clocks in their house, car, office, bedroom, on their computer, on their wrist, or in any other location?
And how many of the church, city hall, or other public "Clocks" have all the numbers on them? In my recollection they have a 12, 3, 6 and 9, the rest of the numerals being replaced by simple lines?

But my real concern, as a motorcyclist these days, is the disregard for posted speed limits on all the roads - highways, back roads, urban streets particularly. Drivers don't seem to remember that "the higher the speed, the longer the distance it takes to stop, or slow up enough to make the curve."

AFJ

They still teach how to read analog clocks in public school. Everyone getting tested now is 80+ years old and spent at least a large portion of their life reading analog time. Most importantly, getting the numbers or time slightly wrong doesn't change pass/fail. It is a cognitive test not a documenting time test. They want to see something close to a circle with numbers spread around the circle almost evenly and some hands pointing at numbers that are plausible. I suspect they'd pass f) and maybe even a) from the first image and parkinsons from second image. The fails are pretty noticeable and it's obvious that the writers world view is significantly impaired.

Speeding is an issue. Governments continually dropping speed limits without changing road design is a part of the problem imo. If you have a road that was designed for 100 km/h, posted at 80 km/h and now politicians drop the speed to 50 km/h, are people speeding more or are politicians getting dumber? Vehicle speed won't have changed much but "speeding" is far worse.

 

[mimico_polak]

It might be "fascinating" but ...... How many people these days have anything but digital clocks in their house, car, office, bedroom, on their computer, on their wrist, or in any other location?
And how many of the church, city hall, or other public "Clocks" have all the numbers on them? In my recollection they may have a 12, 3, 6 and 9, the rest of the numerals being replaced by simple lines?

But my real concern, as a motorcyclist these days, is the disregard for posted speed limits on all the roads - highways, back roads, urban streets particularly. Drivers don't seem to remember that "the higher the speed, the longer the distance it takes to stop, or slow up enough to make the curve."

AFJ

The speed doesn’t even bother me as much as the complete disregard for red lights, stop sign, yield signs, and overall selfishness on the roads.

Our roadways are designed for certain speeds, and politicians keep dropping them in the name of safety / think of the children because it’s an easy ‘hey look what I’m doing to keep you safe’.

What we need is actual consequences.

 

[Mad Mike]

The speed doesn’t even bother me as much as the complete disregard for red lights, stop sign, yield signs, and overall selfishness on the roads.

Our roadways are designed for certain speeds, and politicians keep dropping them in the name of safety / think of the children because it’s an easy ‘hey look what I’m doing to keep you safe’.

What we need is actual consequences.

I don't think it's politicians who are mucking with right-on-reds and in-town speed reduction, It's uninformed bureaucrats doing committee work -- the ones in my town don't even live here!

Politicians are guilty of apathy, once the changes are made they are the ones who can put the genie back in the bottle. Not many politicians are up to that kind of hard work.

 

[GreyGhost]

I don't think it's politicians who are mucking with right-on-reds and in-town speed reduction, It's uninformed bureaucrats doing committee work -- the ones in my town don't even live here!

Politicians are guilty of apathy, once the changes are made they are the ones who can put the genie back in the bottle. Not many politicians are up to that kind of hard work.

Speed limit changes need bylaw update and council vote. Bureaucrats may propose but ime, the politicians are leading the charge and voting to pass the amendments. Lots of Karen phone calls and dropping speed limits is trivially easy and then you can tell the Karen's to leave you alone.

 

[d4rktrooper788]

I had a York Region cop as a student once and I asked him why they let this nonsense go down at intersections. He told me it's frowned upon by officers because the risk of causing another accident by unexpectedly trying to force their way into the intersection to chase is too high.

Police will probably be even more restrained after Durham police chased that van driver onto the 401 and he killed that family. Though Toronto is getting their own choppers so maybe they'll be eager to use them.

 

[PrivatePilot]

Lots of Karen phone calls and dropping speed limits is trivially easy and then you can tell the Karen's to leave you alone.

Around here they've got the speed limits down to 30kph in spots now. I literally got passed by a bicycle a few weeks ago while following them in one section, and lots of people in other cars (who couldnt' give two sh!ts about these new limits) get in behind you and lose their fool minds.

Did it fix the speeding issue in these areas? Unsurprisingly, those who couldn't' care less about the speed limits beforehand, still don't care about speed limits after these changes.

Police presence to enforce anything? Yeah, 1 "back to school" blitz a few weeks ago, and nothing since.

I always wonder why we can find lots of cruisers and police to run them for these sorts of blitzes where there's suddenly a cop near every school, but the other 51.75 weeks of the year, nothing.

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