Cyclists And The Law Part II

CAN CYCLISTS GET DEMERIT POINTS TAKEN OFF THEIR DRIVER'S LICENSE?

According to the Ministry of Transportation's Driver Improvement Office (416-235-1086), cyclists are exempt from the demerit point system. However, some cyclists have reported that they incurred demerit points, even when they did not provide the police with their driver's license.

Here are some possible steps to take:

  1. Unless you are driving a car, there's no reason to even carry your driver's license. If you do carry it with you, don't give it to the police who are ticketing you on your bike. Give some other form of identification instead. This should reduce the chance of demerit points showing up on your license.
  2. Request the police officer laying the charge to write "bicycle" in the vehicle type box on the Provincial Offenses Notice. This may serve to alert the Ministry of Transportation that demerit points are not applicable.
  3. If you go to court (see How to Fight Traffic Tickets) and are found guilty, ask them to indicate "bicycle" in the vehicle type box on the conviction notice. After your trial it would be prudent to check your license abstract to ensure that your conviction/acquittal has been properly recorded and that no demerit points have been assigned.
  4. You can find out if there are any demerit points on your license by going to the Court of Justice on Edward Street and requesting an abstract of your license. If there are, they should be removed by notifying the Ministry of Transportation that you were on a bicycle.
  5. If for some reason the Ministry refuses to remove the demerit points, you should consult a lawyer to determine if you would have to go to court to challenge them.

IS THE HTA FAIR TO CYCLISTS? CORONER'S REPORT SAYS NO

On Sep 8 1998, Regional Coroner Dr. William Lucas released A Report on Cycling Fatalities in Toronto 1986-1996: Recommendations for Reducing Cycling Injuries and Death. ARC called for this coroner's investigation in 1996, following the deaths of two cyclists on the streets of Toronto in July of that year. ARC was the only independent citizens' group formally involved in the two-year process of research and analysis.

There are 15 recommendations within the coroner's report. One of these, titled Legislative Review, is that the HTA needs to be overhauled to give more consistent and fair treatment to cyclists, and other road users not in cars. Here is an excerpt from the report regarding this recommendation.

That the Ministry of Transportation establish an expert review process (involving provincial and municipal representatives, cycling organizations and police) to recommend changes to the Provincial Highway Traffic Act and Municipal By-Laws so that they are more consistent and understandable with respect to cycling and cyclists and therefore easier to promote and enforce.

Rationale:

Some Ontario Highway Traffic Act sections affecting cyclists are not consistent with educational and enforcement priorities for reducing collisions... Ontario's Highway Traffic act presently does little to clarify how bicycles interact with other traffic on our roads. The concept of motorized vehicles yielding to non-motorized vehicles, who in turn must yield to pedestrians seems to be a common sense rule which should be accepted by all road users. Entrenching this principle in the HTA would clarify the situation, and likely significantly reduce risk of injury and death.

WHAT IS ARC'S POSITION ON THE HTA?

There are advantages to being considered vehicles in the HTA that cyclists may not want to give up, but the HTA ignores the basic societal condition in which we ride--that transportation policies, roads, and laws were all designed for motor vehicles. The question is what to do about it. Should cyclists just blindly follow the same rules as car drivers? If the HTA is overhauled, will the result be second-class treatment once we are no longer treated the same as car drivers? This is a legitimate fear but, strange as it sounds, equality is probably not the best solution. Of course cyclists deserve respect and fair treatment but a bike and a car are not equal so treating them equally does not treat cyclists fairly.

The differences between bikes and cars are real. One is encased in two tons of steel, the other is not, one emits harmful emissions, the other does not, one takes up valuable land and resources, the other does not, etc. These differences are not irrelevant. To admit that we are different is not to admit that we are inferior. We have chosen a superior, economical, environmentally friendly, healthy, cheap mode of transport and the current disincentives to travelling by bike need to be removed. Implementing a right-of-way hierarchy within the HTA is a way to start addressing the inequities that cyclists experience.