Update: see previous posts – June 24, 2009 Bill 126, Road Safety Act, 2009 ; May 1, 2009 Drinking and Driving Laws Implemented in Ontario on May 1, 2009 (Bill 203) ; December 10, 2008 Facebook Protest Convinces Premier to Drop Restrictive Changes to Young Drivers in Ontario

In the Province of Ontario starting on Sunday, August 1, 2010 the new rules for Novice Drivers (a new driver of any age, will also be subject to the “no drinking” rule until they get their G2 licence, which can take upto two years to achieve) and Young Driver’s (young being defined as anyone under the age of twenty two (22) years of age) surrounding drinking and driving take effect. Novice and young driver’s will not be able to drink at all while driving (or have any alcohol at all in their system ) and those who do, risk serious consequences.

This is a news release from the Ontario Government’s  NEWSROOM:

McGuinty Government Implements New Drinking And Driving Measures

Ontario is making the province’s roads safer for all Ontarians with new changes that will help protect young and novice drivers.

Starting August 1:

• All drivers 21 years of age and younger must have a zero blood alcohol level when they get behind the wheel or face:

• • An immediate 24-hour licence suspension
  • 30-day licence suspension
  • Up to $500 in fines

• Drivers in the Graduated Licensing System will face tougher penalties if they violate the conditions of their licence or if they are convicted of any Highway Traffic Act offences that carry four or more demerit points. Penalties include:
  • 30-day licence suspension for the first instance
  • 90-day licence suspension for a second instance
  • Further instances can lead to a cancellation of the licence and other penalties.

Also, effective August 3, eligible drivers convicted of an impaired driving offence for the first time, will be able to reduce their licence suspension if they agree to have an ignition interlock device installed in their vehicle, at their own cost. This will help impaired drivers change their behaviour to prevent them from becoming repeat offenders.

These changes are part of the Road Safety Act 2009 and 2007′s Safer Roads for a Safer Ontario Act and will help keep drivers safe on Ontario roads.

This means that initially, the O.P.P and other police forces will be performing “blitzes” in this regard.  Driver’s should be aware of the following:

Novice Drivers and Young Drivers must drive without any alcohol in their system. If they fail to do so, they will be looking at a fine of anywhere between sixty dollars ($60.00) and five hundred dollars ($500.00) if convicted of violating this new section 44.1 of the H.T.A. A young driver is defined as a driver younger than twenty-two (22) years of age. If a young driver is pulled over and it is discovered that he/she has any alcohol in their system, they will be charged and in addition to the fine reflected above, upon conviction, their driver’s licence will be suspended for thirty (30) days. Novice driver’s, upon conviction will be fined and could have their licence cancelled, reclassified or suspended.

A new section, section 48.2.1 has been introduced through this Bill, in the H.T.A. and section 48.2.1 authorizes an administrative driver’s licence suspension of a Young Driver, driving with alcohol in his/her system. If a police officer requests a Young Driver’s breath sample and the test of the sample indicates the “Presence of Alcohol” in his/her system or if the Young Driver refuses a request for a breath sample, his or her driver’s licence will be suspended for a period of twenty four (24) hours. If the same sample of breath indicates a “Warn” or “Alert” the Young Driver’s driver licence would be suspended. The suspensions would get progressively worse.  The first suspension would be a three (3) day suspension, the second suspension would be a seven (7) day suspension and the third suspension would be for a period of thirty (30) days.

See prior study in regard to young people drinking and driving.

No doubt governments across North America will now look to reducing or eliminating driver’s privileges who are operating motor vehicles while under the influence of prescription drugs. In response to some of these concerns, the New York Times released an article on July 24, 2010 “Drivers on Prescription Drugs Are Hard to Convict“.

According to  2007 survey by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which screened 5,900 night time drivers around the country; 16.3 percent of the these night time drivers tested positive for legal or illegal drugs.

Update: See the limited time offer that expires on August 15, 2010 at 11:59 p.m.

To receive a hardcopy version of Fight Your Tickets: A Comprehensive Guide to Traffic Tickets  at a 15% discount, you must order the book through LuLu, using the Coupon Code listed below. This is a time limited offer.

LuLu has sent an email to Fightyourtickets, explaining why this discount is being applied to the book – see below:

Publish | Buy | Sell | Services

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Update:

Big Yellow Taxi

excerpt from Big Yellow Taxi:

“They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot”

Musician/Songwriter/Painter Joni  Mitchell

Collier International recently published a survey referred to as Colliers’ “10th Annual North America Parking Rate Survey“.

The survey shows that the world’s financial meltdown didn’t douse the enthusiasm of the owners of parking lots worldwide and that prices, worldwide, continued to climb during this period for the privilege of parking in a private parking lot.

In Canada, Monthly Parking Rates increased by $6.16 CAD, a 2.8% gain over the past year, compared with a 9.9% increase during the 2008/2009 period. In central business districts across Canada the median rate for daily parking now averages $14.83 CAD and the median monthly parking rate across Canada is $224.10 CAD.

Here is a Global Comparison Chart constructed by Colliers reflected in their North America Parking Rate Survey (converted to U.S. Dollars):

GLOBAL COMPARISON
TOP 25 MONTHLY PARKING RATES* (USD)
1.   London – City 932.99
2.   London – West End 873.50
3.   Hong Kong 744.72
4.   Tokyo 654.00
5.   Rome 615.00
6.   Zurich 605.64
7.   Sydney 591.28
8.   Perth 563.37
9.   Brussels 549.94
10. New York – Midtown 538.00
11. New York – Downtown 529.00
12. Copenhagen 516.88
13. Vienna 496.22
14. Amsterdam 482.28
15. Brisbane 469.47
16. Manchester 462.87
17. Calgary 432.93
18. Geneva 431.34
19. Birmingham 428.05
20. Oslo 425.98
21. Boston 425.00
22. Bristol 419.34
23. Antwerp 393.70
24. Milan 393.70
25. San Francisco 375.00

MONTHLY PARKING COSTS in 12 CANADIAN CITIES:
(as represented by median rate)

1. Calgary $453.38       CAD
2. Toronto $336.25      CAD
3. Montreal $280.62    CAD
4. Edmonton $275.00  CAD
5. Vancouver $266.81  CAD
6. Victoria $180.00      CAD
7. Regina $162.75         CAD
8. Ottawa $160.00       CAD
9. Halifax $158.20        CAD
10.Winnipeg $152.25    CAD
11.Saskatoon $147.00   CAD
12.Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont. $116.94  CAD

National Average $224.10 Cdn. Dollars

The five most expensive parking districts in Canada (as represented by median rate) are; Calgary ($453.00 CAD), Toronto ($336.00), Montreal ($280.00), Edmonton ($275.00) and Vancouver ($267.00) per month.

The most expensive monthly parking in Canada, is found in downtown core of the City of Calgary, Alberta at $453.38 and ranked number 17 in the world.

The City of Toronto, Ontario achieves second place on the Canadian list, with the median monthly parking cost of $336.25.

The City of Montreal, Quebec ranks number 3 on the Canadian list, with the median monthly parking cost of $280.62.

The median (National Average) Monthly Parking Rate across Canada is $224.10, while the median Daily Rate is $14.83.

The City of Toronto reported that driver’s from other Provinces come to Toronto and are ticketed for improperly parking and then neglect to pay the fine for the alleged violation. This creates a shortfall in expected revenue for the City.

It turns out that the 93% of the identified motorists who received parking tickets (10,456) while in Toronto in 2008 and passed on the paying of the associated fines to the City of Toronto were Albertans (who had the worst record for paying their parking fines). Perhaps it is understandable why only 7% of Albertans (probably a large percentage from Calgary) paid their parking ticket fines, given that they were probably enjoying a parking fee holiday, as well as a vacation from work.

Parking Spaces Disappear in Toronto

A number of factors are conspiring to eliminate and reduce the number of on-street, surface parking lot and underground parking spaces in Toronto:

As a result of simple supply and demand, these factors could have the detrimental effect of pushing the price of parking up, at a even greater cost than it is now, placing the now second place Toronto, into first place on the Canadian list, as the most expensive City in Canada to park your motor vehicle on a monthly basis.

Update:

This story comes from seattlepi.com (by KOMO-TV)

Sometimes governments are so quick to pass laws and to enforce them, that their overzealous behaviour ignores to adhere to the very laws that they seek to implement.

Recently it was discovered that laws that were being enforced were not yet written in the Washington Model Traffic Ordinance and therefore were deemed invalid, despite the facts that authorities issued thousands of tickets and that fines, associated with the alleged offences, were paid by motorists who believed that the laws they were accused of violating were actually on the books.

Nearly all Washington cities reference the DOL’s rule book (also known as the Washington Model Traffic Ordinance ) for writing tickets. But the rule book hasn’t been updated since 2004. So any laws enacted since then, such as the cell phone law (talking and texting while driving), aren’t included. The laws are either incorrect or they are not even on the books.

By last Friday, the Licensing Department confirmed that the error encompasses the new cell phone law, the texting law, off-road driving restrictions added in 2008 and a few other traffic laws – including one that requires car speakers to be secured properly.

Roughly 3,000 tickets – mostly for cell phone use and off-roading violations – will likely be invalidated across the state because of an error at the Department of Licensing headquarters in Olympia, officials said.

Now officials are saying the refunds could total up to $450,000 statewide.

This problem doesn’t impact tickets written by the Washington State Patrol because it has its own rule book.

Seattle is not affected by this flaw in the law, as it  doesn’t subscribe to the rule book, officially called the Model Traffic Ordinance, but nearly every other municipality in the State of Washington does.

By Friday, the Licensing Department confirmed that the error encompasses the new cell phone law, the texting law, off-road driving restrictions added in 2008 and a few other traffic laws – including one that requires car speakers to be secured properly.

So all of those cities soon could be required to refund any fines levied for those violations.

About 1,700 invalid tickets have been issued for cell phone use and roughly 1,300 for off-road vehicle violations such as off-roading in a restricted area or lack of proper off-road permits.

A handful of invalid tickets also have been issued for other violations enacted since 2004 but not included in the rule book, such as unsecured car speakers.

The city of Bremerton has already dismissed 84 cell phone tickets. It is also refunding any fines already paid for the tickets, which range from $124 to $176.

Olympia also may dismiss more than 105 tickets and give refunds to the drivers who paid fines. And it’s checking to see whether the total may end up being higher.

In a letter from the Licensing Department, cities are being told to decide whether they will contact drivers with invalid tickets or wait for drivers to contact them. Then DOL is telling cities it will reimburse them for refunds.

It is estimated the refunds will cost Licensing Department between $300,000 and $450,000, as the number of 3,000 invalid tickets is strictly an estimate.

Since this embarrassing situation was discovered, the Licensing Department has now updated its rule book.

Update: see previous post on May 23, 2010 “Pleasure Craft Operator Card – Canada”

Transport Canada has announced that they will be making the licencing process for the Pleasure Craft Operator Card even tougher to obtain. This move by Transport Canada is as a result of an marine accident that occurred on July 3, 2010 in British Columbia. One person is dead and two people remain in hospital with serious injuries following a collision between a speedboat and a houseboat Saturday night on Shuswap Lake in the B.C. Interior.

James Kusie, of federal Transport Minister John Baird’s office, said the government is altering the licensing program with the goal of improving boating safety from coast to coast. “New standards are currently being developed to improve Internet testing and will be available to course providers later this year,” he said.

The test which can be administered over the internet by a number of accredited companies, currently consists of thirty-six (36) questions and Transport Canada plans on changing this to fifty (50) questions later this year. The new revised questions will place a greater emphasis on the rules of the water.

If a boater is caught operating a boat without the Pleasure Craft Operator Card can be fined a minimum of $250.00.

Transport Canada’s Mr. Kusie said the new licensing protocol will require applicants to review an online study guide before they can take the test, and actually demonstrate that they have read and understood the material. New test questions have also been developed, he said, and were recently pilot-tested across Canada.

Once the someone passes the test, the Pleasure Craft Operator Card is valid for life.

Currently the Small Vessel Regulations under the Canada Shipping Act, 2001, require all pleasure craft powered by an engine 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) or more to have a pleasure craft licence, unless they have a vessel registration.

You must carry a copy of your Pleasure Craft Licence on board.

A Pleasure Craft Licence is different from a Vessel Registration. Check the Vessel Registration Office website for more information on registering your pleasure craft.

Pleasure craft licences are free.

Recent amendments to the Small Vessel Regulations have resulted in the following changes to the Pleasure Craft Licensing Process:

• Owners of licensed pleasure craft now have up to 90 days from the date of purchase to transfer a pleasure craft licence. During which time you may continue to operate your pleasure craft with the existing licence and a copy of the transfer documents onboard.
• Pleasure craft licences are valid for a period of 10 years. If there are changes to your name or address in that time, you must update your licence by applying to Service Canada.

Service Canada delivers Pleasure Craft Licensing at all of their offices across Canada.

The Pleasure Craft Licensing system allows Search and Rescue personnel to access the information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in the event of an emergency. This could mean the difference between life and death!

Application for a Pleasure Craft Licence.