[unimaginative2]

I think that perhaps a good idea would be to bring in the use of flashing high beams to get people to move over, though it is ironically being discouraged in its originator Germany. It's much better to flash high beams at somebody who's travelling far too slowly in the passing lane than to fly over two lanes to the far right to get past them.

 

[lobbby]

people need to slow the hell down.


the day will come when all cars are equipped GPS that sends speed and movement data to MTO. if you speed, go through a light or stop sign, you will get a ticket in the mail.


anyone caught racing at high speeds should have a lifetime ban on driving in ontario.

I dont think people will be interested in being violated in this way...this would be government over-stepping its bounds...but knowing the ontario govt you will have your wish

 

[roch5220]

Geez, a couple months back I got a speeding ticket upstate NY, the fine was like 160 odd bucks, plus, a 50 buck service charge, plus 4 points off my license. I was just going 82 mph in a 65 zone. After I learned from others that you just down speed upstate because of the tight enforcement by the state troopers. I ain't gonna speed anymore.

All is needed is tougher penalities plus greater enforcement to enstill fear into people.

 

[ShonTron]

Oh yeah, the OPP is nothing compared to state troopers or county sheriffs who rely on traffic tickets for the revenue. I've been lucky - I'm no speed demon, but I do speed on the occasion I do drive - usually 120 in a 100 zone, 95-100 on a rural highway. I am more careful in the states, but California and Michigan don't seem to have that much enforcement (and speeds are high - I was once trying to keep up with traffic at 80-85 MPH on I-69 from Flint), except in MI, where sometimes the local force will set up traps on the I-75 or I-94.

I noticed the OPP now has the red-and-blue lights on their new black-and-white crusers. After my drive back from Niagara last weekend, I felt like I was back on US 101 with LAPD and CHP patrolling the highways.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

I dont think people will be interested in being violated in this way...this would be government over-stepping its bounds...but knowing the ontario govt you will have your wish

it's not my wish, just my prediction.

 

[junctionist]

The police have no right to seize your property in this case. We're looking at a police force that wishes to be as authoritarian as possible in enforcing the law, and its sickening. They can fine you, revoke your license, remove your plates, but not steal your property.

 

[Hydrogen]

^I agree. I also think the idea of permanent surveillance built into automobiles is excessive.

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

I don't think you can be too "authoritarian" in ridding the highways of irresponsible, dangerous drivers. It's certainly not sickening. Allowing people who put the lives of others in danger to keep doing so, on the other hand, certainly is. There is no circumstance where a driver going 50 km/h over the speed limit is *not* a danger to others and to themselves. So to paint this as the OPP looking to nail people for no reason is ridiculous and idiotic. Any car caught speeding that fast should be impounded and crushed into pop cans on the spot, and the driver barred for life from driving anything more powerful than a John Deere lawnmower.

 

[junctionist]

I didn't paint this as the OPP looking to nail people for no reason. I see this as the OPP abusing their authority to instill fear in people. If a driver's license is revoked for a street racing conviction, or if he/she is sent to jail, how is he/she a danger on the roads?

The crime is how the car is driven, not ownership of the car. It should be punished accordingly.

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

I don't view the police reminding and warning people of the consequences of illegal and reckless acts as instilling fear in people, unless, of course, you tolerate and/or participate in the activity they are attempting to prohibit. To me, this proposal is no different than if drunk drivers were stopped at a RIDE check, failed the breath test, and were pulled off the road and had their licences suspended on the spot and their cars towed, an activity ruled legal by the Supreme Court of Canada. So I think there is clear precedent for having cars immediately seized upon detection, and I have no problem with it, at all. You can call it confiscation, I call it the proper consequences of being an idiot. You can call it "abuse of authority", but to be honest, if you're an asshole and drive like one, you shouldn't be on the road to begin with and the police are in their right to nail you for it.

 

[junctionist]

I don't have any problem with the police reminding people about the dangers of racing either, in fact I think without a doubt it's necessary, but I believe that there are already ample means of doing this that don't involve the extremity of permanently taking property. In the RIDE program, they don't crush the car, but hold it for a set number of days. There is a boundary there, and no matter the outcome of the court proceedings, you get the car back.

Just because the convicted racer ("idiot") can't drive anymore doesn't mean he/she can't own the car for the purpose of giving it to family to drive safely, or collecting, or selling it. Frankly, I've never even considered racing on a public road, I'm not sympathetic towards it either.

 

[Hydrogen]

Why not legislate changes to automobile transmissions and simply prevent cars from exceeding some upper speed limit? That would deal with speed, at least. And it would remove luck from the equation wherein the crazy cruising the 401 at 170 kph gets away with it, but someone else pulling 130 kph gets nailed - and hard.

 

[TKTKTK]

Two things:

1) Our speed limits are supposedly derived from the 85th percentile rule (the speed at which 85% of drivers, err, drive) If the police are interested in cracking down on speeding - at least make sure that what they define as speeding isn't just arbitrarily different than what the majority of drivers consider speeding. Laws are not decrees from the police force.

2) It does nothing to address the absolutely brutal skill level of the average Toronto driver. I'm FREQUENTLY nearly run off the road by drivers trying to leapfrog around cars at intersections, or merging across 3 lanes of traffic within 10 feet without checking their blindspots, right turns from left-lanes, left turns from right-lanes, you name it.

I wish the city would spend their traffic plane money on new bike lanes, a reorganized downtown street plan (more one-way streets), and turning some streets into transit-only corridors. That'll save way more lives and injuries than even cracking down on street racing will.

 

[Hydrogen]

It does nothing to address the absolutely brutal skill level of the average Toronto driver.

It's not just Toronto; and the average driver is not so bad. Too often, it is bad choices that result in accidents. Street racing on the other hand is a purposeful act that is done because it is dangerous.

You raise a good point that poor street driving is more of a challenge than highway driving, which I think is true. A driver cruising at 140 kph and respecting the rules is far less of a concern than an agressive driver weaving through city traffic at 40 kph or turning on red lights without looking or stopping.

Nevertheless, I don't think poor driving habits will be eliminated by reorganizing the downtown street plan, or by creating more one way streets. It never ceases to amaze me how many accidents occur on one way city arteries - mostly because too many people jockey for positions in different lanes all at the same time.

As for transit corridors, I like the idea, but I would like to see a new east-west subway as a major corridor upon which to build other subsequent transit routes - like streetcars and reserved bus lanes. That being said, these things won't necessarily improve traffic or the habits of drivers who willfully drive in stupid ways.

 

[unimaginative2]

Fantino wishes speeding law tougher


OPP Commissioner, shocked at the number of people caught, says he would have made it 30 over instead of 50
Oct 29, 2007 01:33 PM
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Provincial police Commissioner Julian Fantino says he wishes the province's new street racing law was even tougher.

It's been almost a month since the new law kicked in, and Fantino said today that he can't believe so many drivers – about 1,060 so far – have been caught speeding more than 50 kilometres an hour over the limit.

Drivers exceeding that threshold face harsh penalties, including a minimum fine of $2,000 and a weeklong licence suspension.

Police also seize their vehicles.

Fantino says he now regrets not setting the speeding threshold at 30 kilometres an hour over the limit.

He said he never expected the number of busts would be so high and is also surprised that the number of charges didn't drop as public awareness grew about the new law.

Police have caught an average of 38 drivers a day since the law took effect Sept. 30.