Recommendations for changes to the Highway Traffic Act and MTO testing procedures

There is an ongoing mentality that banning certain activities in vehicles will improve road safety in Ontario – essentially taking things away from bad drivers. In the end, bad drivers will still be bad drivers and such laws only reduce peoples respect for those laws and for those who are tasked with enforcing them (i.e. police officers). They do nothing to address the real issues on our roads today and won’t aid in making our roads any safer.

The real issue is that drivers are complacent about the task of operating a motor vehicle and only possess the most basic skills to do so. Everyone on the road thinks that they are a good driver and that everyone else isn’t. Our attitudes need to be changed and our skills need to improve. The only way to do so is to make radical changes not only to the HTA but also to MTO testing procedures and begin aggressive campaigning to improve driver education about the danger and responsibility of operating a motor vehicle.

G License Specific:
-Increase minimum driving age to 17
-Mandate driver training courses to acquire G1 (driver training is currently optional)
-Redesign MTO testing to include practical skills test. Current testing only ensures that drivers are aware of the rules of the road enough to drive, however no testing is done to test practical vehicle handling skills (skid control, crash avoidance, swerve maneuvers, emergency braking, etc.). These practical tests could be modeled after some of the tests used in the popular TV show “Canada’s Worst Driver”.
-Any gaps in holding a valid license would require a skills retest by MTO but driver training course not required again.
-Allow insurance companies to offer discounts to those who take additional advanced driver training
-Mandate practical skills retesting every five years
-Mandate practical skills retesting every year for those over age 70

M License Specific:
-Increase minimum riding age to 17
-Mandate rider training courses to acquire M1 (rider training is currently optional)
-Increase duration of M1 to 6mths (increased from 3mths)
-Restrict engine sizes to no more than 400cc until full M license is acquired (this is a requirement in the UK and very successful)
-Redesign MTO testing to include practical skills test
-Allow insurance companies to offer discounts to those who take additional advanced rider training
-Mandate practical skills retesting every 10 years (practical skills are tested daily far more than for drivers of cars)
-Any gaps in holding a valid license would require a skills retest by MTO but rider training course not required again.

I’m not naive, and fully realize that this will not resolve all our road safety issues, although I do believe that implementing these changes (at least in part) will lead to drastic improvements.