Things people don't know about the highway traffic act

[DanD]

It use to be OK to ride in the back; but I believe now every person riding in/on a vehicle must have a secured seat & seat belt?

 

Dan.

[Ron]

Here's one...you can turn right on a red light provided the intersection is safe to do so. At a 'T' intersection, where there is no right hand turn, can you go straight through once you come to a complete stop and intersection is clear? You are not crossing traffic or lanes and no signs posted saying different.

 

EDIT... it is a double lane intersection and you are in the right lane.

Edited December 19, 2014 by Ron

[Ron]

Backing into driveway from highway. Who has right of way? People lay on the horn on me all the time.

[Meely]

If memory serves, you can make a left on a red light as long as it is from a one-way street to another one-way street.

 

Correct?

 

Meely

Edited December 19, 2014 by Meely

[dave524]

 

Back in the day my mom had a 1955 Austin A-35 and it was the car I learned to drive in and what I took my test in.

 

It didn't have standard turn signal lights either but instead had a switch on the dash that you flipped left or right and a little lighted arm would pop out of the door post just behing the front doors. When you completed your turn you flipped the switch back to center and the little arm folded back in again.

 

Funny little car but alot of fun to drive.

 

Wonder how many folks would even know what it was today if they saw those little arms flipping out

 

 

I too took my test in an Austin, 1966 in a '59 A55 Austin Cambridge. It had the directional turn lights but previously we had an '49 and a '52 that had the flip out arms , they were retired b4 I started to drive.

 

As to turning left on a amber, if I see that the intersection has an advance green, I often will now wait at the white bar on the pavement without entering the intersection unless I see a break in on coming traffic, wait out the red and go on the next advance green. Had a few scares over the years with oncomers who have plenty of time to stop running the amber. This however really PO's the vehicles behind me and my wife if she is with me. Great to be old

Edited December 19, 2014 by dave524

[Terry]

Backing into driveway from highway. Who has right of way? People lay on the horn on me all the time.

the guy backing into the driveway does, but not if you are backing onto a highway from a driveway

[Terry]

here is one almost all drivers get wrong

 

traffic lights are not working right

 

east west are flashing yellow and north south is flashing red

 

....how do you treat the lights.....

[DanD]

People with the flashing red give way to the amber.

 

Dan

Edited December 19, 2014 by DanD

[manitoubass2]

here is one almost all drivers get wrong

 

traffic lights are not working right

 

east west are flashing yellow and north south is flashing red

 

....how do you treat the lights.....

amber is proceed with caution. red is stop, proceed when clear

[Terry]

winner winner

chicken dinner

 

 

I see people stopping with the flashing amber.......they think if it's not working right it's an all way stop

 

but that is only if they are completely out or all flashing red

[KLINKER]

Talk at the garage the other day was a guy was charged with an unsafe load for having his dog loose in the front seat , should have been strapped down in the back seat of the truck.

[manitoubass2]

Terry, the township I used to live in had this set up at all major crossings between 2 and 5am.

 

so we get that question on the driving test everytime lol

[lew]

Talk at the garage the other day was a guy was charged with an unsafe load for having his dog loose in the front seat , should have been strapped down in the back seat of the truck.

I always find it ironic how people...or pets in your post...will be fined for not wearing a seatbelt, but passengers on streetcars and buses aren't required to wear them and are even allowed to stand while going down the road.

Edited December 19, 2014 by lew

[Terry]

Terry, the township I used to live in had this set up at all major crossings between 2 and 5am.

 

so we get that question on the driving test everytime lol

they did it on the main street in newmarket at 2am every day

[limeyangler]

Interesting read.

 

Something that happens a lot I find is people turning into traffic, in England you should never make on coming traffic adjust speed when entering at a junction, is that the same here? It drives me crazy(no pun intended) when people pull out and make you slow down, especially on icy roads, and especially when there is no traffic behind me and they could wait an extra 10 secs and all would be good! Really drives me nuts when people do that and then drive at 10kmh less than me in front of me….what is the point of cutting me up to drive slower?

 

OOOOOPS…ranting again….lol.

[manitoubass2]

Interesting read.

 

Something that happens a lot I find is people turning into traffic, in England you should never make on coming traffic adjust speed when entering at a junction, is that the same here? It drives me crazy(no pun intended) when people pull out and make you slow down, especially on icy roads, and especially when there is no traffic behind me and they could wait an extra 10 secs and all would be good! Really drives me nuts when people do that and then drive at 10kmh less than me in front of me.what is the point of cutting me up to drive slower?

 

OOOOOPSranting again.lol.

happens all the time.

[206]

My pet peeve....not sure it was covered?

 

Approaching, following emergency vehicles

Stop on approach of vehicle with flashing lights or bell or siren sounding

159. (1) The driver of a vehicle, upon the approach of a police department vehicle with its bell or siren sounding or with its lamp producing intermittent flashes of red light or red and blue light, or upon the approach of an ambulance, fire department vehicle or public utility emergency vehicle with its bell or siren sounding or its lamp producing intermittent flashes of red light, shall immediately bring such vehicle to a standstill,

(a) as near as is practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway and parallel therewith and clear of any intersection; or

( when on a roadway having more than two lanes for traffic and designated for the use of one-way traffic, as near as is practicable to the nearest curb or edge of the roadway and parallel therewith and clear of any intersection. 2009, c. 5, s. 49.

How many times I've almost been rear ended attempting to pull over to the side...and I by no means slam on the brakes and always signal. I'm not sure they teach this anymore or if people are blind or just plain ignorant???

I know if the emergency vehicle was on the way to help me I'd hate for some jackass to be slowing it down!!!

[lew]

My pet peeve....not sure it was covered?

 

Approaching, following emergency vehicles

Stop on approach of vehicle with flashing lights or bell or siren sounding

 

 

It's been 47 years now since I joined the Fire Dept. and back then when Toronto drivers heard a siren, they moved outta the way and stopped just like their sposed to.

 

When I retired 14 years ago things had changed in a BIG way and 1/2 the drivers on the road had absolutely NO idea what they were sposed to do. Some seemed completely oblivious to the sirens and just continued on their merry way. Others got totally confused and I've even seen them come to a complete stop in the middle of the road forcing us to go around them.

 

Toronto is a wild & crazy place to drive now and IMHO I think a huge problem is the fact that so many new immigrants have come from places in the world where they never saw heavy traffic and emergency vehicles are totally foreign to them and when they encounter them they just don't understand what to do.

 

I now live on a little dirt road in the boonies & see about 3 cars a day and just the thought of driving big trucks through Toronto sends my blood pressure up about 12 points

[Headhunter]

Lew, there's a tv show called, "Don't Drive Here". You should watch that to see what insanity is really like! And I do agree to a point, that we do have a problem with people not knowing or caring about the rules, but we also have far too many vehicles for our infrastructure to sustain.

Since we are airing gripes, people who don't use their turn signals! The fine engineers who design our cars, made it really easy, just a flick of a finger and presto, everyone knows what you intend to do.

Happy Holidays Everyone! Be careful driving out there.

HH

Edited December 19, 2014 by Headhunter

[lew]

Lew, there's a tv show called, "Don't Drive Here". You should watch that to see what insanity is really like!

 

Yup, I've seen that show a few times Joe and your right, there does appear to be a few places in this world even crazier than Toronto to drive in...and that's hard to believe

[big guy]

Hmmm, knew all of them and often drive in the middle of the road, even when cars are coming at me. Nothing like a good game of chicken, women always move first.

[ketchenany]

Is there a no u turn sign posted?

NO, but there should be at rush hours I've seen some close calls at both locations.

[irishfield]

It's illegal to back onto a King's highway! Almost every citizen in the village of Bailieboro has at least one ticket for that. I always stop and back into my sisters laneway so I can drive out forward.

[Canuck2fan]

I always find it ironic how people...or pets in your post...will be fined for not wearing a seatbelt, but passengers on streetcars and buses aren't required to wear them and are even allowed to stand while going down the road.

 

With the exception of school buses... It isn't really that much of a contradiction. If the city buses and streetcars are so full people are standing then the transit authorities are taking in more money. Just like the writing of tickets makes them money!! It is all about getting more dollars in the hands of those politicians so they can look after it for us, better than we could ourselves LOL.

 

BTW here is an interesting read on why the "authorities" don't think seatbelts need to be mandatory on school buses in Canada.

 

https://canadasafetycouncil.org/child-safety/there-need-seat-belts-school-buses

Edited December 20, 2014 by Canuck2fan

[SirCranksalot]

Here's the one I see all the time in my area: Side street intersects with main street. Stop signs on side, none on main. Driver arrives at stop, waiting for traffic to clear on main to make a left turn. In the meantime I arrive at stop waiting to go thru. When traffic clears driver waits for me thinking I have the ROW-----but I don't! I wait a few secs in case he/she just has slow reaction time. Then one of us waves the other on. It would be nice and make for better traffic flow if the drivers knew that the 'left is last' rule is just a tie breaker for the case when both drivers arrive at the same time.