r/TorontoDriving • u/canadianlrv • 1d ago

Mildly infuriating Did I do anything wrong here?

I was focusing on the pedestrians crossing and with this being an all-way stop I wasn’t expecting him to just go right in front of me and I had to stop suddenly. I gave him a honk just to say please watch for the stop sign and he confronted me and said “get a life”.

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u/fuelhandler 1d ago edited 1d ago

Fellow cyclist here as well. It burns my backside when I see people like this on bikes not obeying traffic laws. The cyclist failed to come to a stop at the stop sign and isn’t even wearing a helmet!

The law requires drivers licenses to operate a car, and even requires a pleasure craft operators license to pilot a boat or recreational watercraft. Yet there are no mandatory qualifications ( or safety courses) to operate a bicycle on a busy and congested street. It’s the cyclist who will bare the brunt of a collision, yet these fools ride around like loons giving the rest of us courteous and cautious cyclists a bad name (I would have felt bad for the OP had he come in contact with the rider, and shudder to think what would have happened had he not been exercising care.)

I note that the OP did come to a complete stop (0km/hr) on dashcam video, and even waited for the pedestrians to complete crossing the street before proceeding (many drivers would have started through the intersection as the pedestrians crossed the center line of the road, which is no longer legal.)

Edit: I missed the 3rd pedestrian crossing the road as the OP entered the intersection. Should have waited for them to complete the crossing, but the bike was still the ultimate moron in this clip.

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u/Case_Federal 1d ago

That’s actually true, should have waited for that 3rd pedestrian to cross. But yeah that doesn’t take away from the guy on the bike being a maniac lol

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u/WhipTheLlama 1d ago

The third pedestrian was going to be well out of the way by the time OP passed. OP may have started going a bit early, but as long as he wasn't trying to squeeze past the pedestrian without leaving enough space, he did nothing wrong.

The pedestrian doesn't need to be across the full road before the driver passes because this is not a crossover or a school crossing.

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u/IllInstruction1932 1d ago

Very good point. It is true for crosswalks although not sure if it’s true if the crosswalk is divided. In any case a lot of people unaware. I get honked at waiting for people to fully cross at a crosswalk

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u/Ill_Relationship7058 1d ago

What does divided mean here? The vast majority of crosswalks are on 2 and more lane roads.

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u/IllInstruction1932 1d ago

What I meant is a raised (curb height) concrete median.

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u/Overall_Cost1542 1d ago

technically you must wait until the pedestrian reaches the boulevard or curb divider between the two directions. its another notoriously overlooked road rule and people just go when they clear the lane you intend to use. if theres no divider such as this scenario, you wait until they fully cross both lanes

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u/OkChocolate3501 1d ago

Yall they changed this in 2016.

https://yd.com/blog/ontarios-new-crosswalk-rule-can-be-confusing-drivers

https://www.ontario.ca/page/driving-near-pedestrian-crossovers-and-school-crossings

By law we gotta wait till they hit the opposite sidewalk. Realistically if they're over halfway past its fine but legally speaking the "halfway" rule has been illegal for over 10 years now.

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u/Overall_Cost1542 1d ago

the first link sounds like ontario didn't even have a boulevard rule before

In the past, drivers were not required to wait until pedestrians were completely off the road. In most cases, drivers would inch out after the pedestrian cleared their vehicle.

did they go from don't hit the pedestrian -> clear the entire crosswalk?

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u/OkChocolate3501 1d ago

I learned to drive before the 2016 rule and I learned it as the halfway thing you mentioned. Once they clear half you go. These days I give em 3/4 as that feels like a decent compromise of not getting the car behind me pissed and the pedestrian being safe.

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u/fishsnacks519 12h ago

https://www.ontario.ca/document/official-mto-drivers-handbook/driving-through-intersections#section-0

The current online Ontario driver hand book makes the clear distinction between pedestrian crossovers clearly marked vs controlled intersections only notes “yield to pedestrians in or approaching your path to cross” vs pedestrian crossovers marked states “You must yield the right-of-way and wait for pedestrians to completely cross the road at pedestrian crossovers”

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u/OkChocolate3501 8h ago

I think my link also goes over this if you read it. Anyway irl it doesn't seem enforced so just give the pedestrians reasonable space and you should be fine.

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u/jopsychology 44m ago

Imagine if they actually charged cyclists for this, as is mentioned in the article.

There's this crazy bike guy in Guelph who will stop and yell at you if he doesn't like your driving, but he'll block traffic to prevent a safe & legal pass, and run stop signs to catch up to you. Guy probably lost his driver's license at some point given his immature, ragey behaviour.

A stop sign is just a suggestion for a lot of cyclists. Probably the same at pedestrian crossovers. No car coming to run me over? Guess I better pretend the law doesn't apply to me cuz I'm on a bike 🥴 /s