The Official MTO Driver's Handbook

2007 brings a new Driver's Handbook. This is the same book that all new drivers and those wanting to upgrade their licence must get. It's somewhat of a distillation, and usually a good explanation, of the Ontario HTA (Highway Traffic Act) and the regulations with some good advice thrown in.

I, perhaps like others, learned to ride my bike on the roads by studying a copy of the Driver's Handbook, and also by experience. Programs like CAN-BIKE or Effective Cyclist were not yet invented.

Why a new handbook? From a cyclist's perspective, the old handbook, copyright 2002, was lacking. It also doesn't hurt that the HTA has changed.

So what, from a cyclists perspective, in the HTA has changed? Well, there used to be a section in the law that required bicycles to always "stay as far to the right as practicable". In the old handbook, on page 30, it stated that "bicycles that cannot keep up with traffic should drive as close as possible to the right edge of the road."

That section of law is now gone. What's left is section 147(1)

Any vehicle travelling upon a roadway at less than the normal speed of traffic at that time and place shall, where practicable, be driven in the right-hand lane then available for traffic or as close as practicable to the right hand curb or edge of the roadway.

Also in the old handbook, again on page 30, was a sentence that read:
If the lane is wide enough, you may share it with the cyclist, keeping a safe distance to the cyclist's left. If the lane is not wide enough to share, the cyclist has the right to the whole lane.

Nowhere in the HTA does it allow one vehicle to share a lane with another. Which means that a cyclist should take the lane. One lane, one vehicle. Simple.

The new handbook also has a subsection titled "Sharing the road with cyclists", in the old one it was "Sharing the road with other vehicles". Having this new part is excellent, and it's worth repeating it in whole:

Bicycles and mopeds that cannot keep up with traffic are expected to keep to the right of the lane; however, they can use any part of the lane if necessary for safety, such as to avoid potholes and sewer grates. Cyclists need a metre on either side of themselves as a safety zone. When passing a cyclist, allow at least one metre between your car and the cyclist. If the lane is too narrow to share, change lanes to pass the cyclist. When turning right, signal and check your mirror and the blind spot to your right to make sure that you do not cut off a cyclist. When parked on the side of the street, look behind you and check your mirrors for a passing cyclist before opening a door.

The next place cyclists appear in the text in on page 50, where the handbook explains how to safely make a right turn. Here the advice that it offer is to check the blind spots and mirrors, and to let cyclists, mopeds, scooters, and motorcycles go through the intersection before the turn.

In a sub-section titled "Passing" on, pages 58 and 59, is the advice:

Watch for bicycles and small vehicles that may be hidden from view in front of the vehicle you are about to pass.

and also on page 59, the good advice continues:

Motorcycles, bicycles, limited speed motorcycles and mopeds often need to pull to the right or right side of their lane to avoid dangerous road conditions or to be seen by other drivers. Do not take this as an invitation to pass in the same lane. If you want to pass these vehicles, do so by changing lanes.

In total, six pages contain advice about interacting specifically with cyclists. This new handbook does a much better job of instructing drivers of how to interact with cyclists. Bicycles continue to be included in the illustrations. That's good too, because cyclists are out on our roads, and should be seen on the road in the drivers handbook. I was able to find 5 illustrations that includes cyclists on the roads. Additional illustrations deal with cyclists road signs.

My thanks to the efforts at the MTO for these improvements, and I hope that you also learned something.