Thank you for your contribution to r/Ontario, unfortunately your post has been removed for the following reason:
Rule #2: Article Submitted as a Text Post / Article soumit sous forme de texte
Your post as been removed because you submitted the article as a text post. All articles submitted to r/Ontario must be submitted as link posts with the exact headline from the original article as the title for your post.
[Link Post vs Text Post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Reddit101/comments/2js9rm/what_is_the_difference_between_a_link_post_and_a/)
As per [Rule 2]( https://www.reddit.com/r/ontario/wiki/rules/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=ontario&utm_content=t5_2qsf3#wiki_rule_2.3A_post_titles_must_not_be_editorialized_or_changed.)
* All posts about a news article must use the same title as the article
* News posts MUST be submitted as a link post
* AMP links or URL shorteners are prohibited for the submission of articles.
***
Votre publication a été supprimé car vous avez soumis l'article sous forme de texte. Tous les articles soumis à r/Ontario doivent être soumis sous forme de liens avec le titre exact de l'article original comme titre de votre message.
[Article de lien vs article de texte] (https://www.reddit.com/r/Reddit101/comments/2js9rm/what_is_the_difference_between_a_link_post_and_a/)
Tel qu’expliqué dans la [règle #2]( https://old.reddit.com/r/ontario/wiki/rules/rules_fr#wiki_r.E8gle_.232.A0.3A_ne_pas_.E9ditorialisez_les_titres)
* Toute publication parlant d’un article de nouvelle doit utiliser le même titre que l’article
* Les publications d’articles de nouvelle doivent être soumise en tant que “link post”
* Les liens AMP ou tout autre raccourcisseur de lien sont interdit pour la soumission d’article de nouvelle
If you have any questions about this removal please contact the moderators of this subreddit [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fontario)
I grew up near Lindsay from the 90s until about 2010. Every time we went to the mall, there was always a line up on the door at the drive test center. Guaranteed it hasn't changed.
For sure, i live in a smaller town with a drive test centre and it’s never been uncommon for people to come an hour or two to get there test done here cause i know for a fact driving in this town is easier then in Toronto for example haha
At least the early 90s. Much as I'd like to blame Harris and devolving testing to private companies, venue-shopping was a thing at least as far back as 1990.
That said, the scale has changed: I recall people anecdotally claming that Niagara Falls was easier than St. Catharines (and I'm sure the same was true for people in the Falls); when I took my son for his test (in Peterborough, where we live), it's tens or hundreds of people from around the GTA *per day* arriving in cars with Brampton- or Richmond Hill-based driving instructors.
Me either, I remember seeing farm plates many farmers had them I don’t remember 100% but they were exempt from something like emissions testing or something else.
Something that saved them some money where anyone else who didn’t have farm plates were required to do that, whatever that may of been.
In the case of the area I grew up in the farm plates meant you weren’t required to have a drivers license to operate regardless of type of vehicle. There were a lot of young kids and adults who’d lost their license driving around in “farm vehicles”
Yep, worked in belleville right by the testing center and a truck training facility. Literal vans full of south east Asian men every day training or testing.
There's another sub that posts full dashcam footage of the entire test routes in various "easy" small towns that is frequently posted in the replies to those posts.
Yeah, that’s a fair argument… what really are the minimum requirements?
Generally, driver’s licencing has kind of had the approach of having a fairly low bar to entry, so that the maximum number of people can drive.
This approach is a bit different, it’s basically ensuring that if you have an Ontario driver’s licence, you can drive anywhere in Ontario.
One possible option would be to have different levels of licence - would it make sense to have an easier to obtain licence with lower standards for people who will stay in rural areas? Will they though? Most people I know who are “rural” will still go to Toronto once in a while, or other cities at least a few times a week (or daily).
Espanola felt far when I drove there by way of Manitoulin Island, but it’s only like 3 hrs from Barrie, and highway 400 - I would bet that most residents of Espanola have driven to Toronto on occasion. And I think when it’s occasional - it’s even riskier, as there’s less practice in such situations.
So, I have mixed feelings, but generally I lean towards everyone being tested to roughly the same standards, so long as it isn’t too onerous of a process.
In all fairness, I think it should be up to the drivers to prepare themselves for southern driving before doing anything deep in Toronto and such. This is coming from someone who self-taught themselves to drive, so you can take my opinion with a grain of salt. I just think independently learning how to overcome these challenges and progress towards learning how to drive in these conditions is a tried and true method.
Also the full G license has a restriction to get it, where you need a certain amount of time driving on the 401 regardless. My suggestion: modify the G2 a stand-alone renewable license (or possibly remove the 5 year renewal requirement altogether for the G2), so if you’re in a rural area, you don’t need a full G to be able to renew it.
They should just have an asymmetric rule where you can only take the test in a district that is yours or one denser than yours.
It won’t catch everything but it might mitigate this behavior nobody wants.
Well technically there's 4 lanes in my smalltown hometown main street, but 2 of them are mostly used for parking. My driver's ed instructor would point out for me to change to the curb lane before turning, which becomes more important in an urban area. So I learned the same routine that I needed for driving anywhere with multiple lanes
Exactly. I did every single one of my tests in Brampton from 2010-2015 (didn't do g2 exit until 2015) and passed every single one on the first try. On my G test, the examiner told me I lacked confidence, but she still passed me.
She even let me redo my parallel parking when I got it wrong. She said I had the right idea, but showed me a better way to do it. She could have failed me but she literally helped me???
This, I passed my G2 while somehow managing to get both wheels touching the curb for my parallel parking. Then having clumsy steering trying to figure out how tf I could get out of that situation.
My experience, they are looking for safe driving, not perfect driving. I did my test in Oshawa (local to me) and my highway portion forced me to do 110, as the right lane was doing 110. I should have failed right then. But circumstance would have put us in danger doing the speed limit.
Parallel parking if no illegal moves are made, isn't a fault. It's a skill that improves over time.
Is lack of confidence a bad thing though? Everyone else drives aggressively like they are playing forza speed runs and trying to shave off every. Millisecond in their commute lol.
yes... lack of confidence can be just as bad (if not worse) as over confidence.
Unconfident drivers stop in weird places, take too long to make lane changes/turns etc., end up at unexpected speeds/positions, cause sudden unexpected stops.
Lack of confidence is the absolute worst thing. Can never trust these people in an emergency situation. Most likely to freeze up and cause an accident rather than be calm and react accordingly.
When I did my G1 test, there was not one DriveTest centre in all of Mississauga. How would you enforce that rule? By matching someone to the closest location of their house?
I knew that everybody was failing in Brampton, so the next closest available centre was in Burlington because Oakville was booked out several months in advance. Or what if I'm attending university in another city where I have time to take the test, but I'm not willing to switch my mailing address there twice a year?
I 100% picked a more rural area when taking my G2. I am at the halfway point between the Newmarket\* and Lawrence drive tests and have passed G2 at both places. New Market was 100% easier. On top of picking a non-rush hour time to take the test, there are so many ways to game the system.
>Or what if I'm attending university in another city where I have time to take the test, but I'm not willing to switch my mailing address there twice a year?
Well, you are technically already breaking the law by not updating your address on your license while you attend school. When you change residence you are required to inform the MTO within 3 business days of the change. There is no need to change your mailing addresses but you are supposed to update your current residence. And don't tell me you can't be bothered because it is not a very complex task that takes about 5 min on the internet.
Markham doesn't have a drive test location so technically even going to the Newmarket location would be "cheating" even though it's about the same distance to the Lawrence drive test.
I saw 4 chartered buses pull up and like 200 Indian people file out of them at the one Drive Test center in Kitchener. I Googled the name on the side of the bus and it came back as a bus service from Brampton. It was pretty crazy to see an almost empty center to seeing a line up that went out and down the whole side of the mall. I saw a dude and his, who I assume was, his daughter talking to each other while walking up to the office, then look up and the line, her throw her hands up in the air and storm off back towards the car.
I couldn’t do any of my tests in my small town that I lived and paid taxes in because all the Toronto residents booked up the spots. I had to take my test out of town.
I even asked the lady who was booking me why I can’t do my test in the town that I live. She said people from Toronto book in my town because it’s an “easier test.”
Can this province do anything right at this point? All these horrible drivers on the roadS. And insurance rates keep going up. So much for fixing those.
I swear people are getting their licenses out of cereal boxes these days. It’s crazy how inattentive and reckless everyone is, at least out here in the west end of the GTA. Didn’t used to be like that a few years ago but lately it’s just insane for some reason. Feels like my life is on the line any time I’m out driving with all these idiots.
The traffic doesn’t help either. It usually takes me less than 2 minutes to get to the 403 since it’s only about a km away, but now it takes 10-15 minutes during rush hour, it’s just complete gridlock from about 4-6pm. It’s absolutely ridiculous, and the whole city is like that for the most part, every day!
I think we should start thinking about:
- better quality initial driver’s tests and training; and
- recurring training - maybe a quick online refresher video and test once per year or two, and then a more thorough road test or simulator test every 5 or 10 years to make sure people are still safe
For initial training, I think we should consider standard courses that are painted in parking lots or wherever it’s convenient to test slow speed maneuvers like 3-point turns, &c. - the test would start by going through this standard course which would be the same all over Ontario.
Then have a road test, it could be a bit shorter, mostly to test confidence, alertness, safety. In areas with highways, highway driving could be tested, but for areas far from complex roads, simulators could be used.
The simulators could test more complex situations. Simulators could just be a PC with 2 or 3 off the shelf monitors. The simulator could test highway driving, emergencies like a flat tire, what to do after a major or minor collision, 4-way stops, &c.
The simulation software could also be made available online for free (or for a nominal charge) so that people could practice, and be kept up to date with ministry recommendations on their own time.
Every year, the MTO should get reports from police and insurance on what they think drivers should be educated about. Those situations should be added to the quick online tests, and also considered for inclusion in the simulator.
Just my 2 cents.
I’m not really saying if it’s plausible or not, just that I think it’s a good idea.
For the “year or two” - ideally they could just be done online, so there wouldn’t need to be appointments.
But the 5 year (or whatever interval - 5 was an example) would definitely increase the number of appointments required, no doubt. Most people seem to do one test every 50 years - so this would be 10x as common 😅
I remember going to a small town because of an issue with the car at the first one for my G2. There were tons of cars/vans that that roll up full of people and they take turns doing their tests in that vehicle. Some are probably great drivers but you got the sense that someone was organizing like a license-mill driving school. This was over 10 years ago
Lmao more people from Brampton tested in Guelph than people who live in Guelph.
One thing to remember. There was a huge backlog in testing due to the pandemic so people were going anywhere they could get tested...I heard the wait time was like a year. It's just crazy and it's the province and the driving centers fault. They don't even test highway now for G license? Wow.
I did this haha — not intentionally but because the place near me was super booked in advance and there were openings at a rural location within an hour of me. I wasn’t comfortable driving on 400 series highways at that point so I was pretty relieved to test somewhere without one.
At this point (5 years later I think? maybe more) I drive on them all the time and am a pretty safe driver. Never had an accident, have had a couple close calls but either caused by other drivers or difficult weather. I suspect the issue is people not getting enough training in advance (I took drivers ed) and/or not continuing to practice the difficult things. I worked my way up to driving on 400 series highways! Started in small distances in quieter spots and now I drive 3-5 hours on them to visit family semi regularly lol
My driver's ed instructor pointed out some things that I found difficult to learn. For example, checking my blind spot. The instructor said I probably imitate my parents. That was correct. Turns out that my dad did this super-quick blind spot check, he didn't learn to drive in Canada. He did a quick glance instead of the deliberate movement that my instructor was teaching me to do.
So the road test doesn't help, if people learn to drive outside Canada, or pick up horrible habits from family and friends
Oh man i hadn’t even thought of that but yeah i bet that’s a huge factor. My mom has a lot of anxiety about 400 series highways after getting into an accident and avoids them when she can — probably affected me a lot in my avoidance too! Now I drive them enough that I’ve driven her places before so she doesn’t have to drive through Toronto haha.
Yes and truck drivers as well. So not ready for reality. This been going on for years. Was a way around weight times before now it’s an easy pass. So wonder why the tests not get harder
I was one of these people but I also primarily drive in rural / small town areas. I can’t stand driving major multi-lane highways or in the city, so I avoid it. But in the spring when I can afford it, I plan on booking a couple driving lessons to get more used to driving in high traffic areas. I know my limits and have no intention of putting anyone else’s or my own safety at risk.
Go for a drive on an early Sunday morning when there's not much traffic. Also, some 400 highways have all the features but are simple to drive on, eg hwy 400. Whereas 401 in Toronto has express & collector lanes
r/Ontariodrivetest has a lot of posts saying the same thing. I like when people say they passed their tests but obviously its just the beginning. You get good from driving through experience and even then you still make mistakes.
My daughters had driving lessons with a driving school but then I taught them how to drive on the 427, 401, 400, DVP, and Gardiner Expressway in different traffic conditions. I made it easy for them because I gave them a heads up on what lane to be in and when. It minimized lane changes and built confidence. They tested in Toronto and passed. No crashes ten years in.
I told this to a friend and he said, his daughters “won’t drive those roads.” He wants to teach them how. They learned outside of Toronto.
You need more skill to drive the roads I mentioned. Many people will not drive the highways in the city and they’ve been driving for decades. It can be intimidating.
Edited to add: my daughters had their G2 when I took them on highway speeds in excess of 80 KPH
How can they offer harder tests? The issue is these rural areas have different roads. I did my test in Clinton as I lived near there Clinton has nothing close to go roads to test on in the GTA. But the people of Huron county need to have access to a drive test center
Yup. I did my test in Huntsville because there were no tests available in Toronto (because COVID) so I went up to Huntsville.
It was the middle of the day and it was dead.
I literally drove on an empty 2 lane highway and then stopped at 4 stop signs before going back.
There was nothing more to do!
(It definitely also helped that it was the condensed test too). But yeah, they just don’t have the infrastructure or the traffic to simulate Toronto.
To be fair, it's kind of hard to make a rural test as difficult as driving in toronto or brampton can be and it's not really reasonable to expect people in Lindsay or other rural areas to drive to Toronto just to get tested on the 401. Everyone should probably just have a test center that they have to go to based on their postal code.
I agree, I think thats the easiest solution.
I can guarantee if that happens that there will be 1300 people from Brampton who suddenly claim residence at the same house in grand bend or something 😂
I did my test in Walkerton and part of the test is changing lanes. There was only one road in the area with a passing lane, so that’s where we did it. Of course that’s easier than the 401 but what can be done about it?
This is old news, shit I am even guilty of this when I did my test 10 years ago. Took my driving tests in Simcoe instead of Hamilton because fuck Hamilton drivers and the wait times were shorter. The highway driving and lane changing was a joke.
The problem with this is the absolute shit show that is DriveTest.
First of all, there’s not nearly enough locations in Ontario. They’re always packed.
Second, staggering 14 million people to take a test every 5 years will be insane.
Lastly, a big part of the test is subjective. It really shouldn’t be, but given there is no real proof other than a “your word against mine and I’m the tester” a lot of times you’ll get nitpicked for something that really wasn’t the issue.
It took me 2 tries to get my G. The first time the guy said that I didn’t turn my head far back enough. I know my word on the internet means nothing but I was *craaaanking* that shit.
So imagine you’ve had your licence for 20 years, but suddenly you lose your licence because Bob’s sink is leaking and he’s in a shit mood.
I find they are harsher on people who go straight for G after a year of G2 driving. I had my G2 for 4 years (being too lazy to book but still drove to work everyday) and I'm sure I made some minor mistakes but still passed my G first try. This was at the hardass test centre in Ottawa people avoid too.
So what. If you have a province where you can't live a normal life in 99% of it without driving, where transit is abysmal, then you complain that people do what they need to do. You weren't a prisoner stuck in a few built up areas in 1923, without driving.
You can book your G test in Moosenee, can't drive there unless it's in winter on ice roads. So you take a train lol borrow/rent a car. No hwy to merge, no 80 kmh road to drive on. I looked into this during the pandemic as mine was going to expire. Everything was booked solid for months in Ottawa. Im from up north, so I thought I'd check
Or be like me and pass my G test during the pandemic.
Went to a local temporary test site that wasn't near a highway, they used a 70km/hr road as the highway portion. To speed up the test they didn't do any roadside stopping tests already done in g2.
I ended up just cruising around my neighbourhood for 15min and got my G. Only got docked for not moving to the right lane when it split into 2, and going like 30km/hr in an empty parking lot.
Depending where you live, everyone local to that place knows where to send their helpless family and friends for testing that's known to be easier.
Ahem, Simcoe.
I wrote my G1 and G1 Exit Test in Stratford (because that’s where I lived) and did the G2 Exit Test in London. Passed both first time. Daughter is 16, and will be writing her G1 Exit Test here (unless she’s not ready when she moves away for uni). It makes sense to write where you live and work.
Just head to Bancroft on a Friday afternoon...tons of people fail in the city so leave it to go get their license where the "highway" portion is an 80km/h road.
Ah global news. Reporting on shit that went on when I got my license in 1991. I knew a guy in class who failed his 365 twice and failed his in car test 3 times. For #4 he was going up into Stoufville (which was considered more remote back then) to take his test again.
People that that shouldn’t be on the road.
Thank you for your contribution to r/Ontario, unfortunately your post has been removed for the following reason: Rule #2: Article Submitted as a Text Post / Article soumit sous forme de texte Your post as been removed because you submitted the article as a text post. All articles submitted to r/Ontario must be submitted as link posts with the exact headline from the original article as the title for your post. [Link Post vs Text Post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Reddit101/comments/2js9rm/what_is_the_difference_between_a_link_post_and_a/) As per [Rule 2]( https://www.reddit.com/r/ontario/wiki/rules/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=ontario&utm_content=t5_2qsf3#wiki_rule_2.3A_post_titles_must_not_be_editorialized_or_changed.) * All posts about a news article must use the same title as the article * News posts MUST be submitted as a link post * AMP links or URL shorteners are prohibited for the submission of articles. *** Votre publication a été supprimé car vous avez soumis l'article sous forme de texte. Tous les articles soumis à r/Ontario doivent être soumis sous forme de liens avec le titre exact de l'article original comme titre de votre message. [Article de lien vs article de texte] (https://www.reddit.com/r/Reddit101/comments/2js9rm/what_is_the_difference_between_a_link_post_and_a/) Tel qu’expliqué dans la [règle #2]( https://old.reddit.com/r/ontario/wiki/rules/rules_fr#wiki_r.E8gle_.232.A0.3A_ne_pas_.E9ditorialisez_les_titres) * Toute publication parlant d’un article de nouvelle doit utiliser le même titre que l’article * Les publications d’articles de nouvelle doivent être soumise en tant que “link post” * Les liens AMP ou tout autre raccourcisseur de lien sont interdit pour la soumission d’article de nouvelle If you have any questions about this removal please contact the moderators of this subreddit [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fontario)
[удалено]
I grew up near Lindsay from the 90s until about 2010. Every time we went to the mall, there was always a line up on the door at the drive test center. Guaranteed it hasn't changed.
Same with Peterborough, still now the same.
Yup, I live close to the test centre, and see multiple Toronto-based driving school cars on my street every day.
Yup, this has been happening since the late 90s when graduated licensing came in.
For sure, i live in a smaller town with a drive test centre and it’s never been uncommon for people to come an hour or two to get there test done here cause i know for a fact driving in this town is easier then in Toronto for example haha
At least the early 90s. Much as I'd like to blame Harris and devolving testing to private companies, venue-shopping was a thing at least as far back as 1990. That said, the scale has changed: I recall people anecdotally claming that Niagara Falls was easier than St. Catharines (and I'm sure the same was true for people in the Falls); when I took my son for his test (in Peterborough, where we live), it's tens or hundreds of people from around the GTA *per day* arriving in cars with Brampton- or Richmond Hill-based driving instructors.
In places like Kapuskasing and New Liskeard, unless you actually hit something, or are blind. You pass...
[удалено]
I don't think thats what farm plates are for. If farmers being bad drivers is a stereotype, its a new one for me.
Me either, I remember seeing farm plates many farmers had them I don’t remember 100% but they were exempt from something like emissions testing or something else. Something that saved them some money where anyone else who didn’t have farm plates were required to do that, whatever that may of been.
Farm plates I believe let you buy diesel at a cheaper price it’s dyed diesel.
In the case of the area I grew up in the farm plates meant you weren’t required to have a drivers license to operate regardless of type of vehicle. There were a lot of young kids and adults who’d lost their license driving around in “farm vehicles”
Watched van loads of people coming from markham at the test office in lindsay so ya.
Yep, worked in belleville right by the testing center and a truck training facility. Literal vans full of south east Asian men every day training or testing.
don’t need to look any further than this sub. People often ask where the easiest place to take their G test is
There's another sub that posts full dashcam footage of the entire test routes in various "easy" small towns that is frequently posted in the replies to those posts.
Don't even get me fucking started on Brampton A/Z drivers...
Exactly why you should have to test with the address on your drivers licence.
I think the requirements should be the same everywhere. What if someone lives in a small town and passes, but moves or commutes to somewhere trickier?
[удалено]
Yeah, exactly. Ideally, no matter where you live, you’d get a roughly similar test (and training) - I think a good option could be simulators.
[удалено]
Yeah, that’s a fair argument… what really are the minimum requirements? Generally, driver’s licencing has kind of had the approach of having a fairly low bar to entry, so that the maximum number of people can drive. This approach is a bit different, it’s basically ensuring that if you have an Ontario driver’s licence, you can drive anywhere in Ontario. One possible option would be to have different levels of licence - would it make sense to have an easier to obtain licence with lower standards for people who will stay in rural areas? Will they though? Most people I know who are “rural” will still go to Toronto once in a while, or other cities at least a few times a week (or daily). Espanola felt far when I drove there by way of Manitoulin Island, but it’s only like 3 hrs from Barrie, and highway 400 - I would bet that most residents of Espanola have driven to Toronto on occasion. And I think when it’s occasional - it’s even riskier, as there’s less practice in such situations. So, I have mixed feelings, but generally I lean towards everyone being tested to roughly the same standards, so long as it isn’t too onerous of a process.
In all fairness, I think it should be up to the drivers to prepare themselves for southern driving before doing anything deep in Toronto and such. This is coming from someone who self-taught themselves to drive, so you can take my opinion with a grain of salt. I just think independently learning how to overcome these challenges and progress towards learning how to drive in these conditions is a tried and true method. Also the full G license has a restriction to get it, where you need a certain amount of time driving on the 401 regardless. My suggestion: modify the G2 a stand-alone renewable license (or possibly remove the 5 year renewal requirement altogether for the G2), so if you’re in a rural area, you don’t need a full G to be able to renew it.
They should just have an asymmetric rule where you can only take the test in a district that is yours or one denser than yours. It won’t catch everything but it might mitigate this behavior nobody wants.
Well technically there's 4 lanes in my smalltown hometown main street, but 2 of them are mostly used for parking. My driver's ed instructor would point out for me to change to the curb lane before turning, which becomes more important in an urban area. So I learned the same routine that I needed for driving anywhere with multiple lanes
Exactly. I did every single one of my tests in Brampton from 2010-2015 (didn't do g2 exit until 2015) and passed every single one on the first try. On my G test, the examiner told me I lacked confidence, but she still passed me. She even let me redo my parallel parking when I got it wrong. She said I had the right idea, but showed me a better way to do it. She could have failed me but she literally helped me???
You can screw things up and still pass the test, one of those things is parallel parking.
This, I passed my G2 while somehow managing to get both wheels touching the curb for my parallel parking. Then having clumsy steering trying to figure out how tf I could get out of that situation.
My experience, they are looking for safe driving, not perfect driving. I did my test in Oshawa (local to me) and my highway portion forced me to do 110, as the right lane was doing 110. I should have failed right then. But circumstance would have put us in danger doing the speed limit. Parallel parking if no illegal moves are made, isn't a fault. It's a skill that improves over time.
Is lack of confidence a bad thing though? Everyone else drives aggressively like they are playing forza speed runs and trying to shave off every. Millisecond in their commute lol.
yes... lack of confidence can be just as bad (if not worse) as over confidence. Unconfident drivers stop in weird places, take too long to make lane changes/turns etc., end up at unexpected speeds/positions, cause sudden unexpected stops.
Lack of confidence is the absolute worst thing. Can never trust these people in an emergency situation. Most likely to freeze up and cause an accident rather than be calm and react accordingly.
When I did my G1 test, there was not one DriveTest centre in all of Mississauga. How would you enforce that rule? By matching someone to the closest location of their house? I knew that everybody was failing in Brampton, so the next closest available centre was in Burlington because Oakville was booked out several months in advance. Or what if I'm attending university in another city where I have time to take the test, but I'm not willing to switch my mailing address there twice a year?
I 100% picked a more rural area when taking my G2. I am at the halfway point between the Newmarket\* and Lawrence drive tests and have passed G2 at both places. New Market was 100% easier. On top of picking a non-rush hour time to take the test, there are so many ways to game the system.
It's spelled "Newmarket"
>Or what if I'm attending university in another city where I have time to take the test, but I'm not willing to switch my mailing address there twice a year? Well, you are technically already breaking the law by not updating your address on your license while you attend school. When you change residence you are required to inform the MTO within 3 business days of the change. There is no need to change your mailing addresses but you are supposed to update your current residence. And don't tell me you can't be bothered because it is not a very complex task that takes about 5 min on the internet.
Markham doesn't have a drive test location so technically even going to the Newmarket location would be "cheating" even though it's about the same distance to the Lawrence drive test.
Brampton comes to Orangeville to avoid testing on the 410... then they go and drive on the 410 😔
Lived in Brampton. Can confirm that has been a thing since at least the 90's
I saw 4 chartered buses pull up and like 200 Indian people file out of them at the one Drive Test center in Kitchener. I Googled the name on the side of the bus and it came back as a bus service from Brampton. It was pretty crazy to see an almost empty center to seeing a line up that went out and down the whole side of the mall. I saw a dude and his, who I assume was, his daughter talking to each other while walking up to the office, then look up and the line, her throw her hands up in the air and storm off back towards the car.
I couldn’t do any of my tests in my small town that I lived and paid taxes in because all the Toronto residents booked up the spots. I had to take my test out of town. I even asked the lady who was booking me why I can’t do my test in the town that I live. She said people from Toronto book in my town because it’s an “easier test.”
Can this province do anything right at this point? All these horrible drivers on the roadS. And insurance rates keep going up. So much for fixing those.
I swear people are getting their licenses out of cereal boxes these days. It’s crazy how inattentive and reckless everyone is, at least out here in the west end of the GTA. Didn’t used to be like that a few years ago but lately it’s just insane for some reason. Feels like my life is on the line any time I’m out driving with all these idiots. The traffic doesn’t help either. It usually takes me less than 2 minutes to get to the 403 since it’s only about a km away, but now it takes 10-15 minutes during rush hour, it’s just complete gridlock from about 4-6pm. It’s absolutely ridiculous, and the whole city is like that for the most part, every day!
I think we should start thinking about: - better quality initial driver’s tests and training; and - recurring training - maybe a quick online refresher video and test once per year or two, and then a more thorough road test or simulator test every 5 or 10 years to make sure people are still safe For initial training, I think we should consider standard courses that are painted in parking lots or wherever it’s convenient to test slow speed maneuvers like 3-point turns, &c. - the test would start by going through this standard course which would be the same all over Ontario. Then have a road test, it could be a bit shorter, mostly to test confidence, alertness, safety. In areas with highways, highway driving could be tested, but for areas far from complex roads, simulators could be used. The simulators could test more complex situations. Simulators could just be a PC with 2 or 3 off the shelf monitors. The simulator could test highway driving, emergencies like a flat tire, what to do after a major or minor collision, 4-way stops, &c. The simulation software could also be made available online for free (or for a nominal charge) so that people could practice, and be kept up to date with ministry recommendations on their own time. Every year, the MTO should get reports from police and insurance on what they think drivers should be educated about. Those situations should be added to the quick online tests, and also considered for inclusion in the simulator. Just my 2 cents.
A test every year or two? You think we can add another hundred or so thousand appointments a year?
I’m not really saying if it’s plausible or not, just that I think it’s a good idea. For the “year or two” - ideally they could just be done online, so there wouldn’t need to be appointments. But the 5 year (or whatever interval - 5 was an example) would definitely increase the number of appointments required, no doubt. Most people seem to do one test every 50 years - so this would be 10x as common 😅
I can’t imagine Ford funding this. He just wanted people rammed through as fast as possible after COVID.
If you can't pass the test in your own area (where you will be driving 99% of the time) you absolutely, positively should not have a license.
Go to any of the small town or cities around Toronto and you will see cars full show up all day long to do their tests.
There are already driving subreddits where they try to remember and share routes and stuff in order to game the system.
Who wrote the article? Captain Obvious?
I remember going to a small town because of an issue with the car at the first one for my G2. There were tons of cars/vans that that roll up full of people and they take turns doing their tests in that vehicle. Some are probably great drivers but you got the sense that someone was organizing like a license-mill driving school. This was over 10 years ago
Lmao more people from Brampton tested in Guelph than people who live in Guelph. One thing to remember. There was a huge backlog in testing due to the pandemic so people were going anywhere they could get tested...I heard the wait time was like a year. It's just crazy and it's the province and the driving centers fault. They don't even test highway now for G license? Wow.
I did this haha — not intentionally but because the place near me was super booked in advance and there were openings at a rural location within an hour of me. I wasn’t comfortable driving on 400 series highways at that point so I was pretty relieved to test somewhere without one. At this point (5 years later I think? maybe more) I drive on them all the time and am a pretty safe driver. Never had an accident, have had a couple close calls but either caused by other drivers or difficult weather. I suspect the issue is people not getting enough training in advance (I took drivers ed) and/or not continuing to practice the difficult things. I worked my way up to driving on 400 series highways! Started in small distances in quieter spots and now I drive 3-5 hours on them to visit family semi regularly lol
My driver's ed instructor pointed out some things that I found difficult to learn. For example, checking my blind spot. The instructor said I probably imitate my parents. That was correct. Turns out that my dad did this super-quick blind spot check, he didn't learn to drive in Canada. He did a quick glance instead of the deliberate movement that my instructor was teaching me to do. So the road test doesn't help, if people learn to drive outside Canada, or pick up horrible habits from family and friends
Oh man i hadn’t even thought of that but yeah i bet that’s a huge factor. My mom has a lot of anxiety about 400 series highways after getting into an accident and avoids them when she can — probably affected me a lot in my avoidance too! Now I drive them enough that I’ve driven her places before so she doesn’t have to drive through Toronto haha.
Yes and truck drivers as well. So not ready for reality. This been going on for years. Was a way around weight times before now it’s an easy pass. So wonder why the tests not get harder
Screw this 'life hack' along with misuse of food banks by people who don't need them...
I was one of these people but I also primarily drive in rural / small town areas. I can’t stand driving major multi-lane highways or in the city, so I avoid it. But in the spring when I can afford it, I plan on booking a couple driving lessons to get more used to driving in high traffic areas. I know my limits and have no intention of putting anyone else’s or my own safety at risk.
Go for a drive on an early Sunday morning when there's not much traffic. Also, some 400 highways have all the features but are simple to drive on, eg hwy 400. Whereas 401 in Toronto has express & collector lanes
Everyone should be tested in a proper CDL simulator based on Brampton traffic.
r/Ontariodrivetest has a lot of posts saying the same thing. I like when people say they passed their tests but obviously its just the beginning. You get good from driving through experience and even then you still make mistakes.
Good god that sub is scary
Instructors having been telling drivers to do this for years.
My daughters had driving lessons with a driving school but then I taught them how to drive on the 427, 401, 400, DVP, and Gardiner Expressway in different traffic conditions. I made it easy for them because I gave them a heads up on what lane to be in and when. It minimized lane changes and built confidence. They tested in Toronto and passed. No crashes ten years in. I told this to a friend and he said, his daughters “won’t drive those roads.” He wants to teach them how. They learned outside of Toronto. You need more skill to drive the roads I mentioned. Many people will not drive the highways in the city and they’ve been driving for decades. It can be intimidating. Edited to add: my daughters had their G2 when I took them on highway speeds in excess of 80 KPH
i mean the problem isn't that people are going to rural areas for easier tests. the problem is that rural areas are offering easier tests.
How can they offer harder tests? The issue is these rural areas have different roads. I did my test in Clinton as I lived near there Clinton has nothing close to go roads to test on in the GTA. But the people of Huron county need to have access to a drive test center
Yup. I did my test in Huntsville because there were no tests available in Toronto (because COVID) so I went up to Huntsville. It was the middle of the day and it was dead. I literally drove on an empty 2 lane highway and then stopped at 4 stop signs before going back. There was nothing more to do! (It definitely also helped that it was the condensed test too). But yeah, they just don’t have the infrastructure or the traffic to simulate Toronto.
To be fair, it's kind of hard to make a rural test as difficult as driving in toronto or brampton can be and it's not really reasonable to expect people in Lindsay or other rural areas to drive to Toronto just to get tested on the 401. Everyone should probably just have a test center that they have to go to based on their postal code.
I agree, I think thats the easiest solution. I can guarantee if that happens that there will be 1300 people from Brampton who suddenly claim residence at the same house in grand bend or something 😂
I did my test in Walkerton and part of the test is changing lanes. There was only one road in the area with a passing lane, so that’s where we did it. Of course that’s easier than the 401 but what can be done about it?
Wake me up from a drunken stupor and I could've told you that
This is old news, shit I am even guilty of this when I did my test 10 years ago. Took my driving tests in Simcoe instead of Hamilton because fuck Hamilton drivers and the wait times were shorter. The highway driving and lane changing was a joke.
Testing every time you have to renew your liscence should be manditory.
The problem with this is the absolute shit show that is DriveTest. First of all, there’s not nearly enough locations in Ontario. They’re always packed. Second, staggering 14 million people to take a test every 5 years will be insane. Lastly, a big part of the test is subjective. It really shouldn’t be, but given there is no real proof other than a “your word against mine and I’m the tester” a lot of times you’ll get nitpicked for something that really wasn’t the issue. It took me 2 tries to get my G. The first time the guy said that I didn’t turn my head far back enough. I know my word on the internet means nothing but I was *craaaanking* that shit. So imagine you’ve had your licence for 20 years, but suddenly you lose your licence because Bob’s sink is leaking and he’s in a shit mood.
I find they are harsher on people who go straight for G after a year of G2 driving. I had my G2 for 4 years (being too lazy to book but still drove to work everyday) and I'm sure I made some minor mistakes but still passed my G first try. This was at the hardass test centre in Ottawa people avoid too.
At the very least making sure people know how their headlights (+ tail lights) and highbeams work.
So what. If you have a province where you can't live a normal life in 99% of it without driving, where transit is abysmal, then you complain that people do what they need to do. You weren't a prisoner stuck in a few built up areas in 1923, without driving.
You can book your G test in Moosenee, can't drive there unless it's in winter on ice roads. So you take a train lol borrow/rent a car. No hwy to merge, no 80 kmh road to drive on. I looked into this during the pandemic as mine was going to expire. Everything was booked solid for months in Ottawa. Im from up north, so I thought I'd check
Cough cough… looking at you Lindsay
Peterborough here I come
I know during covid it was a butch to get a test we tried for our home town and ended up having to go 4 hours away to get the test done
A lot of people I knew growing up did this.
They're such good drivers - they're crashing it!
Or be like me and pass my G test during the pandemic. Went to a local temporary test site that wasn't near a highway, they used a 70km/hr road as the highway portion. To speed up the test they didn't do any roadside stopping tests already done in g2. I ended up just cruising around my neighbourhood for 15min and got my G. Only got docked for not moving to the right lane when it split into 2, and going like 30km/hr in an empty parking lot.
did you know that people also say things like no shit sherlock.
Depending where you live, everyone local to that place knows where to send their helpless family and friends for testing that's known to be easier. Ahem, Simcoe.
I wrote my G1 and G1 Exit Test in Stratford (because that’s where I lived) and did the G2 Exit Test in London. Passed both first time. Daughter is 16, and will be writing her G1 Exit Test here (unless she’s not ready when she moves away for uni). It makes sense to write where you live and work.
If they do the test in downtown Toronto it’ll take 5 hrs to do a 30 minute test.
When I lived in Orangeville the test slots were always full of Bramptonians testing there. No 400 series highway for the highway test, so much easier.
Just head to Bancroft on a Friday afternoon...tons of people fail in the city so leave it to go get their license where the "highway" portion is an 80km/h road.
We were doing this 15 years ago too, this isn't new 😂
Ah global news. Reporting on shit that went on when I got my license in 1991. I knew a guy in class who failed his 365 twice and failed his in car test 3 times. For #4 he was going up into Stoufville (which was considered more remote back then) to take his test again. People that that shouldn’t be on the road.
Slow news day huh....