Ontario reins in handheld devices
Last updated: October 28, 2009 · Print this report
Ontario drivers who like to yak and text on handheld cell phones have about six months to cure themselves of the habits.
(Update: The Ontario ban on handheld electronics for drivers went into effect Monday, Oct. 26. This post is about the bill passing.)
The Legislature gave final approval Wednesday to a ban on texting and using handheld devices behind the wheel. Prohibited activities include emailing, watching DVDs, fooling with MP3 players and video gaming.
Drivers may continue to use cell phones if a hands-free device such as a Bluetooth headset
is employed.
“What we’re trying to do is to avoid distractions while people are driving — those distractions being caused, in this case, by electronic devices that are hand-held,” said Transportation Minister Jim Bradle.
Fine would be as much as $500 (CAN). There are no points charged to the license under this law, but drivers who endanger others while using electronic devices could face 6 points and fines up to $1,000.
Premier Dalton McGuinty had opposed the plan, but it gained momentum since introduction last fall. Local media reported that the intent of the handheld device ban is to get the law in place before the onset of winter driving.
The provinces of Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador all have adopted bans on driving and using electronic devices.
I find the new law prohibiting the use of hand held cell phones while driving entirely misses the point. We have all been subjected to the driver that is on the cell phone while driving. Their driving skills are somewhat impaired. This manifests itself in a number of ways; driving too slow, slow to proceed on a green light etc, etc. None of these safety concerns are going to be minimized in any way with the ban on holding a cell while driving. ITS NOT THE LOSS OF A HAND THAT CAUSES THE PROBLEM, BUT RATHER THE MIND IS FOCUSED ON SOMETHING OTHER THAN DRIVING!!! This seems so obvious to me that I can’t help but wonder if I am missing something with respect to this new law.
Will the ignition interlock devices be effected in this new law. These devices can ask for a breath sample randomly while driving is this not also a distraction.
I must completely disagree with the other comment. I have noticed myself that holding a phone i become a terrible driver.. Then I purchased a bluetooth headset and I drive perfectly while using it.. It’s just like
talking to a passenger in the car.. I am really happy that this law is going in effect because so many people that cut me off without even noticing that im there i notice are HOLDING a phone.
“Their driving skills are somewhat impaired. This manifests itself in a number of ways; driving too slow, slow to proceed on a green light etc, etc. None of these safety concerns are going to be minimized in any way with the ban on holding a cell while driving.”
-Absoulutely right!!!!
These are all things that cause ROAD RAGE.
To the Govt. I say, Here’s dollar…go buy a clue!!!!
Will the new hands free law include, eating, picking your nose, applying make-up, reaching over to babies in the back seat, drinking coffee, and smoking?
On my way in to work this moring on the bumper to bumper DVP I witnessed each one of these offenses.
Or will the Police simply park at the end of the Tim Horton’s drive through and pull people over one by one?
Friday a women was eating a bowl of cereal, actual cereal with milk!
Not sure that it’s the electronic devices that are the problem but the idiots that use them.
They should consider banning bicycles on routes such as queen street as well. As a driver it is nearly impossible to watch the pedestrians, street cars, taxi’s alone, then you have a person on a bike that just zooms on by with no concern for the driver that has his/her eye on so many other distractions. If I were to hit one of those cyclists and injure them, I would have to live with that for the rest of my life. How is that fair? Electronic devices are not the problem!
i think it should be ok to text at a red light but thats not to say it will stop people texting well driving weed is ileagle but people still do their not going to stop everyone from using their mobile divices my point is it wont compeltly salve the problem
Alex says: “Then I purchased a bluetooth headset and I drive perfectly while using it.”
I’m sure you do.
As one person above said that this is a great idea as he uses Bluetooth head piece and he is a much better driver. What he fails to realize is that him taking his hands off the wheel to answer the phone (either phone or bluetooth switch), he is in violation of the law.
This is a classic case of silly bureaucrats gone all overboard. Maybe police should be targeting them as I have seen lots of idiots heading out of Queens Park checking their BlackBerries while driving.
@Amanda
what you said about cyclists insults me. As a driver you should be aware of your surroundings, bicycles follow the same rules of the road as you, and most people will conform to this. If you failed to be attentive enough to see a cyclist i don’t really think it’s his fault, it’s yours, that reason you have the feeling you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself is guilt. you would be guilty (YOU HIT him after all). Drivers need to pay more attention to the road in general, and this is not an issue with obstacles on the road. this has to do with the persona of the driver. If something scares you on the road, because you think there may be a risk, why are you driving at all? you worrying doesn’t help much, but you taking action against your worry, by paying more attention. and being able to keep track of taxi’s, streetcars, other drivers and cyclists then that’s a job well done.
@Alex T: It is a proven fact that objective tests show that it does not matter whether you are holding the phone or using hands-free installation. It is the act of talking to someone outside your car that has the serious effect on your attention. You may *think* that is not the case, but it is very likely that are you are an average person and the results also apply to you.
I have seen the psychology research that shows that drivers are equally distracted whether they use a handheld or hands-free phone, so it would seem that the handheld ban misses the point. OTOH, I think that few of the drivers who now use a handheld phone while driving will take the bother to switch to a hands-free phone. So, the ban on handheld devices alone will in fact have the effect of banning almost all cell phone use while driving. That alone will greatly reduce the degree of distracted driving, and in that case the new law achieves the intended effect.
Anyone thinking that using a hands-free phone makes them a good driver is kidding themselves. Study after study, on thousands of people and (literally) millions of miles driven shows that it’s the conversation that’s the problem, not holding the phone.
And talking on the phone has proven to be a far bigger distraction than things like drinking coffee (which you don’t need to concentrate on to understand)–aside from texting, which is even worse, the only “activity” that had a accident rate that compared to talking on a phone (with or without a hands-free device) was DWI.
Amanda, I think it is better to ban cars on queen st.!
[...] cut down on accidents caused by drivers who aren’t paying attention, in Ontario it is now a ticketable offense to text, email, or navigate with your GPS while driving. But it seems to me that they have thrown the baby out with the bathwater, because it [...]
http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/news/statements/stat081028-chart.pdf
You’re over exaggerating the extent of the law. I suggest you read a summary of it, or read the law itself.
http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/source/regs/english/2009/elaws_src_regs_r09366_e.htm
Read the law before you start making stuff up.
Does it matter that accident rates across Canada have been dropping for the last 20 years?
Or that all provinces already have a law covering driving without due care and attention.
What a waste of time.
Texting at a red light usually results in the light turning green while the texter has no clue and the drivers behind the texter are wondering when that idiot is going to realize what planet he his on.
I think Ontario’s law is well intentioned, but suffers from one serious problem: It is simply NOT possible to legislate stupidity from the human race. Accountability can be legislated into the law, but stupidity cannot be legislated out of the law.
Think about it.
I for one would love to see sigarettes banned behind the wheel
But some say that have a conversation with a passenger is ok but is that not a serious distraction if you are in a heated argument that requires you to think about your arguments. If so when will the provincial governments of Canada ban talking to passengers while driving – since this is also a distraction!
These studies about driver distraction provide valuable, yet scant, illumination. Broader studies of task distraction show that it matters a great deal the content of the distraction, as well as group awareness of the cognitive landscape.
When I sit in the passenger seat–as an experienced driver myself–I’m usually as attentive to traffic and road conditions as the driver. Not having my own set of mirrors is a bit of a handicap, but to offset this, I can perform a 5 second shoulder check and not lose my lane. When the passenger is paying the same attention as the driver, the conversation naturally shapes itself around cognitive load. The driver doesn’t need to signal a pause. Often it’s the passenger who senses the upcoming lane change, and initiates the pause. The passenger can afford to devote considerable mental resources to discourse management. Discourse management is major subfield within linguistics, and not appreciated nearly as much as it should be, to the enrichment of marriage counsellors everywhere.
What do studies have to say about the limit on how much can be communicated without any detectable loss in driver aptitude? I’d be shocked if anyone has bothered to find out. Who funds that? One might even discover that an astute passenger can, in the best case, function as an anti-distraction. No insurance company wishes to learn this.
The cognitive burden boils over when the conversational partner falls short of full situational awareness. This can be a child, or a distracted, restless, insistent adult. Worse still if the conversation partner isn’t even in the car: zero shared situational awareness. Even so, if you’re talking to sibling and you’re not at cats and dogs over anything, the required silences during the driving activity will likely manage themselves through long familiarity.
A hundred times worse, you’re talking to your boss (managing up), a difficult subordinate (managing down), a client you need to impress (on the make), making social commitments you might later regret (double booking), or discussing any social nuance where clout matters (status conscious). Managing our place in the social hierarchy is a full time job for our giant brains. Lucky if we humans don’t fall our tree branch trying to do two things at once. Half the people who come into my coffee shop can’t manage to close the door behind them on a cold October day if they’re yammering with a chum on the way in. Do you want these people out there driving cars? With a phone?
Definitely many accidents are caused by drivers who are in the wrong conversation at the wrong time. If we’re going to police this at all, the rule needs to be shallow. It’s not the cop’s job to determine if your brain was preening, or not, in a particular exchange of words.
I think it has to be up to the driver to judge the risk, because a lot of valuable economic activity happens on the road in the transportation and sales industries at very low accident risk. There needs to be painful consequence on judging this risk badly: such as having twice as many points slapped on your license if you get into an accident (regardless of fault) while yammering on the phone. We could also require cars to signal “phone active” with a rooftop warning light, to make it easier for the cops to pull someone over who isn’t driving as well as they think they are. Intrusive? Any idea what’s on your hard disk already watching your every move? I thought not. Trust me, Google knows.
If it’s the cop’s discretion that bugs you, maybe it’s time to give your jaw a rest already. Do you have nothing at all in your mind to contemplate in solitude? That’s a sad state of affairs. Too many people severed from their mobile phone yowl like someone’s overdependent pet dog leashed outside the coffee shop by the same people who can’t manage to close the door on the way out to their asphalt-coloured tinted-window antenna-laden SUV.
Next they will ban the use of indicators, windscreen wipers and headlights for fear that remove a finger from the wheel will lessen your driving skill.
Just came across a cop today on the highway – jumping from lane to lane – no signals several times – watching for people who may or may not be talking on their cell phones. She kept pulling up beside people to check if they were talking on hand held cell phones or blue tooth. By jumping from first, second and to third lane, and putting on her brakes to come up beside people – she almost caused an accident herself!
She finally caught someone with a cell phone in their hand and pulled them over.