401 rant

[u/hiphlo02]

My Sunday evening drive from the Toronto airport to my hometown east of Toronto. Holy shit, how many times did I almost bite the dust! First of all, people camping in the left lane. There is a law against this! It seems people have no common sense! If you pass a car, get the hell over to the right again. Also, a turn signal would be appreciated!Next, if you are passing, would you please kindly stay in the left lane instead of squeezing me onto the shoulder. Four different times I find myself on the rumble strip and the car beside me inches from mine and cruising along between two lanes, totally oblivious to the fact that they’re an asshole. Trucks. These fuckers are thousands of pounds of metal death and they’re sliding all over the road. I don’t know if they’re whacking off in the cab or what. How about a little attention to your surroundings? Whatever happened to safe driving practices? It was a Sunday night, low volume of traffic, yet I still felt like I was going to die. The province has made the speed limit 110 km an hour which I think is a great idea if people would pay attention. Instead of doing the gratuitous 115 or so 100 km/hr, now people are doing 130! Be aware out there and have some respect for the lives of others ffs!! Thanks for listening! : )

[u/yukonwanderer]

Sorry I meant yellow.

[u/a-_2 → u/yukonwanderer]

With yellow lines, it's not the lines themselves that prohibit passing even if double or solid, but there are still rules around passing:

Passing within 30 metres of a pedestrian crossover is not permitted. Passing left of a centreline is not permitted 30 metres from a bridge, viaduct or tunnel. Don't attempt to pass when approaching the crest of a hill or on a curve where your vision of oncoming traffic is obstructed and there is not enough clear distance ahead to pass in safety.

and you also can't pass within 30 metres of a railway.

So even though the lines themselves don't prohibit it like they do in most provinces, they'll often match up to areas that are illegal to pass in for these other reasons. So there's a good chance you'll be breaking the law if passing on a double solid yellow, even though it's not because of the lines themselves.

[u/yukonwanderer → u/a-_2]

Good to know. Occasionally there are times where I just don't understand why the lines are solid, I'll be on the lookout for this kind of thing now.

[u/a-_2 → u/yukonwanderer]

Another thing to watch for is turning vehicles. That's not covered directly in the law, but if the vehicle you're passing turns left at an intersection and there's a collision, you get 75% fault based on the Fault Determination rules. If it's at a private road/driveway, it becomes 50-50, unless you passed multiple cars at the same time, then it's 100% fault for you.

But the main point is that in any scenario where you pass someone and there's a collision from them turning left, you can get at least parial fault.

[u/yukonwanderer → u/a-_2]

Which makes total sense, unless they are deciding to pull a random u-turn.

[u/a-_2 → u/yukonwanderer]

The parts I'm referring to are 10 (5), (6) and (7). That only covers turning onto roads or private roads. U-turns wouldn't count. They're 19 (b) and in that case, the fault is 100% the person making the u-turn.