Highway Traffic Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8

• Jurisdiction: Ontario

Highway Traffic Act

R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER H.8

Consolidation Period: From March 6, 2024 to the e-Laws currency date.

Last amendment: 2024, c. 2, Sched. 18, s. 9.

CONTENTS

Interpretation, general

Definitions

1 (1) In this Act,

“ambulance” includes,

(a) an ambulance as defined in the Ambulance Act,

(b) a cardiac arrest emergency vehicle operated by or under the authority of a hospital, and

(c) an emergency response vehicle, other than an ambulance as defined in the Ambulance Act, operated by an ambulance service that is used to provide emergency response services, and that has been assigned an emergency response vehicle number by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care; (“ambulance”)

“bicycle” includes a tricycle, a unicycle and a power-assisted bicycle but does not include a motor assisted bicycle; (“bicyclette”)

“built-up area” means a territory contiguous to a highway not within a local municipality, other than a local municipality that had the status of a township on December 31, 2002 and, but for the enactment of the Municipal Act, 2001, would have had the status of a township on January 1, 2003, where,

(a) not less than 50 per cent of the frontage upon one side of the highway for a distance of not less than 200 metres is occupied by dwellings, buildings used for business purposes, schools or churches,

(b) not less than 50 per cent of the frontage upon both sides of the highway for a distance of not less than 100 metres is occupied by dwellings, buildings used for business purposes, schools or churches, or

(c) not more than 200 metres of the highway separates any territory described in clause (a) or (b) from any other territory described in clause (a) or (b),

and signs are displayed as required by the regulations; (“agglomération”)

“bus” means a motor vehicle designed for carrying ten or more passengers and used for the transportation of persons; (“autobus”)

“chauffeur” means a person who operates a motor vehicle and receives compensation therefor; (“chauffeur”)

“commercial motor vehicle”, unless otherwise defined by regulation, means a motor vehicle having attached to it a truck or delivery body and includes an ambulance, a hearse, a casket wagon, a fire apparatus, a bus and a tractor used for hauling purposes on a highway; (“véhicule utilitaire”)

“compensation” includes any rate, remuneration, reimbursement or reward of any kind paid, payable, promised, received or demanded, directly or indirectly; (“rémunération”)

“conversion unit” means a mechanical device consisting of a single axle designed to convert a two-axle vehicle into a three-axle vehicle; (“essieu relevable”)

“conviction” includes a disposition made under the Young Offenders Act (Canada) or a sentence imposed under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (Canada); (“déclaration de culpabilité”)

“crosswalk” means,

(a) that part of a highway at an intersection that is included within the connections of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on opposite sides of the highway measured from the curbs or, in the absence of curbs, from the edges of the roadway, or

(b) any portion of a roadway at an intersection or elsewhere distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by signs or by lines or other markings on the surface; (“passage protégé pour piétons”)

“CVOR certificate” means a Commercial Vehicle Operator’s Registration Certificate issued under section 17; (“certificat d’immatriculation UVU”)

“Deputy Minister” means the Deputy Minister of Transportation; (“sous-ministre”)

“driver” means a person who drives a vehicle on a highway; (“conducteur”)

“driver’s licence” means a licence issued under section 32 to drive a motor vehicle on a highway; (“permis de conduire”)

“farm tractor” means a self-propelled vehicle designed and used primarily as a farm implement for drawing ploughs, mowing-machines and other implements of husbandry and not designed or used for carrying a load; (“tracteur agricole”)

“fire department vehicle” includes an emergency crash extrication vehicle owned and operated by a rescue organization approved by the Minister in writing for the purposes of this Act and a vehicle designated in writing by the Fire Marshal of Ontario as a fire department vehicle; (“véhicule de pompiers”)

“garage” means every place or premises where motor vehicles are received for housing, storage or repairs for compensation; (“garage”)

“goods” includes all classes of materials, wares and merchandise and livestock; (“biens”)

“gross weight” means the combined weight of vehicle and load; (“poids brut”)

“highway” includes a common and public highway, street, avenue, parkway, driveway, square, place, bridge, viaduct or trestle, any part of which is intended for or used by the general public for the passage of vehicles and includes the area between the lateral property lines thereof; (“voie publique”)

“intersection” means the area embraced within the prolongation or connection of the lateral curb lines or, if none, then of the lateral boundary lines of two or more highways that join one another at an angle, whether or not one highway crosses the other; (“intersection”)

“King’s Highway” includes the secondary highways and tertiary roads designated under the Public Transportation and Highway Improvement Act; (“route principale”)

“median strip” means the portion of a highway so constructed as to separate traffic travelling in one direction from traffic travelling in the opposite direction by a physical barrier or a raised or depressed paved or unpaved separation area that is not intended to allow crossing vehicular movement; (“terre-plein central”)

“Minister” means the Minister of Transportation; (“ministre”)

“Ministry” means the Ministry of Transportation; (“ministère”)

“mobile home” means a vehicle, other than a motor vehicle, that is designed and used as a residence or working accommodation unit and exceeds 2.6 metres in width or eleven metres in length; (“maison mobile”)

“motor assisted bicycle” means a bicycle,

(a) that is fitted with pedals that are operable at all times to propel the bicycle,

(b) that weighs not more than fifty-five kilograms,

(c) that has no hand or foot operated clutch or gearbox driven by the motor and transferring power to the driven wheel,

(d) that has an attached motor driven by electricity or having a piston displacement of not more than fifty cubic centimetres, and

(e) that does not have sufficient power to enable the bicycle to attain a speed greater than 50 kilometres per hour on level ground within a distance of 2 kilometres from a standing start; (“cyclomoteur”)

“motor vehicle” includes an automobile, a motorcycle, a motor assisted bicycle unless otherwise indicated in this Act, and any other vehicle propelled or driven otherwise than by muscular power, but does not include a street car or other motor vehicle running only upon rails, a power-assisted bicycle, a motorized snow vehicle, a traction engine, a farm tractor, a self-propelled implement of husbandry or a road-building machine; (“véhicule automobile”)

“motorcycle” means a self-propelled vehicle having a seat or saddle for the use of the driver and designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground, and includes a motor scooter, but does not include a motor assisted bicycle; (“motocyclette”)

“motorized snow vehicle” has the same meaning as in the Motorized Snow Vehicles Act; (“motoneige”)

“official sign” means a sign approved by the Ministry; (“panneau officiel”)

“park” or “parking”, when prohibited, means the standing of a vehicle, whether occupied or not, except when standing temporarily for the purpose of and while actually engaged in loading or unloading merchandise or passengers; (“stationnement”)

“peace officer” includes a mayor, warden, reeve, sheriff, deputy sheriff, sheriff’s officer, justice of the peace, jailer or keeper of a prison, and a police officer, bailiff, or other person employed for the preservation and maintenance of the public peace, or for the service or execution of civil process, or any officer appointed for enforcing or carrying out the provisions of this Act; (“agent de la paix”)

“pedestrian crossover” means any portion of a roadway distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by signs on the highway and lines or other markings on the surface of the roadway as prescribed by the regulations; (“passage pour piétons”)

“power-assisted bicycle” means a bicycle that,

(a) is a power-assisted bicycle as defined in subsection 2 (1) of the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations made under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act (Canada),

(b) bears a label affixed by the manufacturer in compliance with the definition referred to in clause (a),

(c) is fitted at all times with pedals that are operable to propel the bicycle, and

(d) is capable at all times of being propelled on level ground solely by using muscular power to operate the pedals; (“bicyclette assistée”)

Note: On a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor, the definition of “power-assisted bicycle” in subsection 1 (1) of the Act is repealed and the following substituted: (See: 2021, c. 26, Sched. 1, s. 1)

“power-assisted bicycle” means,

(a) a pedal-driven bicycle of conventional exposed fork-and-frame bicycle design and appearance that does not resemble a motor scooter or motorcycle and that,

(i) has two or three wheels,

(ii) is fitted at all times with pedals that are always operable to propel the bicycle,

(iii) is capable at all times of being propelled on level ground solely by using muscular power to operate the pedals,

(iv) has steering handlebars,

(v) has wheels that have a width of not less than 35 millimetres and a diameter of not less than 350 millimetres,

(vi) has one or more electric motors that, singly or in combination, have a continuous rated output power not exceeding 500 watts and that is incapable of providing propulsion assistance when the bicycle attains a...