new law in Ontario re GPS in the car

Joined
Jul 8, 2008
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177
Location
Ontario
TomTom Model(s)
GO730
I currently have my 730 windshield mounted. I will no longer fiddle with the settings while the car is in motion ;). So fellow Ontarians, according to the new and any existing law...am I law abiding? :confused:
 
I currently have my 730 windshield mounted. I will no longer fiddle with the settings while the car is in motion ;). So fellow Ontarians, according to the new and any existing law...am I law abiding? :confused:

Your post isn't very clear. Did you get into an accident or had a near-miss or something? I ask because you say you will no longer fiddle with the device while the car is in motion. Is there a new law? Is there not? Explain!
 
Did you get into an accident or had a near-miss or something? I ask because you say you will no longer fiddle with the device while the car is in motion. Is there a new law? Is there not? Explain!

No accident. And yes a new law has just been enacted but w/o seeing it in writing I am unsure as to what GPS form is no longer permitted; most importantly is windshield mounted allowed under this new law?
 
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It hasn't been enacted yet. The legislation is just getting tabled. But, considering the party in power has a majority, the legislation is likely to pass into law with few, if any, amendments.

Yes........windshield and dash mounted gps units (and phones and pdas) will be legal. What WON'T be is gps directions received while you are HOLDING the receiver. So, devices such as i-phones, cell phones and pda's, if held while receiving directions, will be ILLEGAL.

One reporter at the press conference announcing the new legislation asked the Minister of Transport whether ipods, if attached to the dash, would be legal. His reply, "I don't know. I'll have to get back to you".
 
No accident. And yes a new law has just been enacted but w/o seeing it in writing I am unsure as to what GPS form is no longer permitted; most importantly is windshield mounted allowed under this new law?

I'm pretty sure it's a windshield mounting law and not a "using a GPS" law. Here in the states there are plenty of insurance companies that even give discounts for having and using one. GPS devices are even said to reduce accidents by a nice percentage.

California has a law that restricts GPS devices from being mounted on a windshield. I don't know if that's a good idea because if you have to mount a GPS even lower in your car, you now have to look down and take your eyes further off the road. Yea I know windshield mounted gps devices block your view a tiny bit, but looking DOWN makes you lose 100% of your view of the road. California has some crazy laws at times (not this law but many othrs)
 
I thought I read that California is modifying the law to allow gps units on a windshield if attached at the bottom of the screen to not block line of sight vision.
 
I'm pretty sure it's a windshield mounting law and not a "using a GPS" law.
So far the newspaper reports have stated clearly that it will be a ban on hand held devices while presuming that mp3 players will be excluded.
Remarks about the positioning of GPS devices has been somewhat ambiguous as I have only see statements about the acceptance of in dash navigation systems.

The thrust, of the not yet tabled law, is to ban hand held phones and it has been made pretty clear that texting while driving will become subject to fines.

For me, the best spot for a GPS is windshield mounted, directly below the rear view mirror. I divide my attention between windshield, instruments and mirror. Glancing at the GPS below the mirror does not cause undue distraction, looking for a GPS in the middle of the dash would.

At highway speeds very little attention is given to the GPS. At slower speeds in heavy city traffic I like seeing the (my) green arrow pointing towards the next turn even before the announcement.
Once the announcement comes it confirms that which I glanced at and does not then require my taking attention away from traffic.
This, to me is a true contribution to safety.

As mentioned a a few months ago, driving half a day through traffic in London without a single argument with the passenger made for relaxed, unstressed driving. Knowing that you have to take the fifth exit at the next triple lane roundabout without having to look for the street name to find the exit made my last trip to the UK the most pleasurable one. Compound that with not having to pull over (with no space to find) to look at a map to find how to get back on track takes off such a burden, it is hard to explain.
Cheers,
 
Excerpt:
... computer screen should only be visible if they are designed to assist the driver in ensuring the safety of the vehicle's load or its passengers, or for one of the following reasons: to navigate;

This would be good.

... in a manner that does not obstruct the view of the driver or is not visible to the driver

This could be troublesome.

I would maintain that the GPS mounted directly below my rear view mirror is not any more obstructing than the mirror itself and definitely less so than a fox tail, worry beads or a rosary.

That might not get me anywhere in a court of law and we will have to wait for the exact wording of the Act and/or eventual case law decisions.
 
For me, the best spot for a GPS is windshield mounted, directly below the rear view mirror.

A bit off topic but I have had nothing but trouble trying to secure my 730 to the windshield :mad:. This was true in the summer time with the TT OEM mount. So late in the summer I decided to buy a more substantial glass mount (you know the kind with the 'latch' which as depressed creates a vacuum?). Anyways this doesnt work reliably either...especially in cold weather :mad: . So for the past few trips I have had to put the 730 in a cubby near the stick shift. Definitely not optimal.
 
Try a bit of spit on the suction cup.

That goes w/o saying! I have kissed that cup too many times :eek: w/o success. And this time of year it wont even stick at all. At least in the summer it would stick for awhile then fall off :mad: .
 
Ohh I didn't know that. That would make more sense.

Yeah, but this is politics we're talking about, so leave it to the politicians to pass a bill that doesn't do much good!

As of August 8, 2008, it's legal as long as it's mounted within a 5-inch square on the lower driver's side corner of the windshield or within a 7-inch square on the lower passenger's side corner.

http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_1551-1600/sb_1567_bill_20080805_enrolled.pdf

For many vehicles, that's quite a reach if you need to push a button so you need to have a mount with a very long arm.
 
That is, unless it's red. It can't be red.


and no, I couldn't possibly make this stuff up. There's nothing to equal the craziness of the real politics.
 
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A bit off topic but I have had nothing but trouble trying to secure my 730 to the windshield
Out of the box I had some trouble too.
I have learned to hold the bracket with both hands. Steadying it with one while pressing the witht he thumb of the other excatly axially in the middle of the suction head.
This two haded affair takes an extra five seconds but the bracket hasn't fallen down since (never used saliva).
As of August 8, 2008, it's legal as long as it's mounted within a 5-inch square on the lower driver's side corner of the windshield or within a 7-inch square on the lower passenger's side corner.

For many vehicles, that's quite a reach if you need to push a button so you need to have a mount with a very long arm.
Wonder if that was done upon consultation with GPS manufacturers who will now have to fill the demand for remote controls.

The one for the 930 is very useful but I haven't figured out how to hang up after a phone conversation.
 
Gentlemen.......I'm going to be an anal jerk here but can we keep the posts in this thread on topic, please? Feel free to create a new one about tips for keeping the mount attached.

(yeah, I'm as guilty as the next person regarding wandering ... I'll have to monitor myself, too :( )

Thanks for your understanding.
 
I don't like my GPS near the windshield anyway. Too often the glare made the screen harder to see. My past cars had a cubbie higher up, and that is where I liked to put it. Made it easy to work with. Now I have a Camry and the cubbie is down near the gearshift. It seems to work OK that way. I just work less with it that way, but it's probably not a good idea to do that anyway.
So now, down near the gearshift, I just take quick glances and see where I'm suppose to go. Guess I have to work quicker, which seems to work better anyway. Mine is a ONE XL and I love it! I''m adding lots of POI's for it.
Every so often down near the gearshift, it seems to get "lost". Then it finds it way pretty quickly....
MarkP
 
Jeeez. Gonna be hard to place my 720 on the drivers side - windshield mounted....Thats where my Sirius is. So it sits as most, directly under the RView mirror. As for the BBerry, it's on a Bluetooth H700 motorola..that I understand is still legal. I tried using the 720's Bluetooth capability, however too many complained it was tinny and lots of ambient road noise interferred with them understanding me..back to the headset I went.:cool:

Bottom line is though, Anything .. and I mean anything that distracts from actual driving and includes cells, navs, sat radios etc detracts from the attention one must give to actually driving the vehicle.

Headset or not, talking on a cell phone will make you miss exits...don't ask me how I happen to know that.!!:D Texting is just plain stupid...in my humble opinion. No one on the planet needs a reply that freaking fast.!! especially on the 400 series of hwys in the GTA or any other major met centre.

cheers,

stk
 
One area I found that 'does not hinder' the driver's view, is the instrument panel. With my 930 mounted in front of the speedometer, problem of 'glare' is eliminated. And the 930 has it's own speedo display anyway.

I just had to control the urge to operate the gps screen when I'm turning.
lolz.
 

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