Too easy to get a driver's license?

[smably]

Ontario does have the "Ontario Photo Card" that is suppose to-do the same, but most business don't recognize it. I have a friend who has it, and Canada Post gives him a hard time now and again because it isn't on "the list" of approved ID.

Really? This is not at all consistent with my experience. I've only even had an Ontario Photo Card and I've never had any trouble with it. It's valid photo ID, period -- if anyone gave me a hard time, you can bet I would give them an even harder time, because they should be familiar with the list of valid government-issued photo ID. Are you sure your friend wasn't trying to use a health card as ID?

I agree that having a driver's license is a privilege, not a right, and maintaining that privilege should require active participation by the driver. Mandatory re-testing every ten years would be a good start.

 

[nfitz]

Really? This is not at all consistent with my experience. I've only even had an Ontario Photo Card and I've never had any trouble with it.

You wouldn't have problems with an Ontario Photo Card with Canada Post. On the list of acceptable photo identification they list both provincial identification card and the age of majority card - https://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGpolicies-e.asp#1427737 (though note that a health card isn't valid in Ontario.

Not sure why anyone would think this isn't valid. I'm sure individual employees at Canada Post may have made a mistake. But if they do so, simply point out that it's on their list of acceptable ID, and if necessary talk to their supervisor.

 

[wopchop]

My driver's license has been expired for a while, and I've gotten on perfectly fine with just an OHIP photo card in my wallet. I haven't opened a bank account in a long time, but I think a passport would do the trick. Anyway, I'm talking about people with a proven record of driving without regard to public safety, not someone with a speeding ticket or 2. I think the slight inconvenience to the person who loses their license is greatly outweighed by the need for protecting innocent lives on the road.

The problem is that the Health Card is not considered a "List 1 document", meaning that in some cases, you would need to provide a second piece of ID in addition to your health card to satisfy the requirements. See this link.

 

[the lemur]

You're right, that is a problem... I'm sure paying off 6 $200 tickets wasn't a big issue to Marco Muzzo, the grandson of a billionaire. Too bad the province couldn't confiscate and crush his car, Aussie style

Apparently he was doing 120 in a 60 zone and told cops he was coming from a friend's house rather than from the airport.

If he'd been driving one of his beloved Ferraris instead of a Jeep SUV he might have totalled it and killed himself instead of others. Done us all a favour.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Rules of the road also change. Used to be that the Driver's Handbook (and the Ontario road map) was available free at MTO offices, where you would go to renew your car's license plates. I would also pick up the free handbook, to look at changes in the rules.

Today, the Driver's Handbook will cost you $14.95 plus tax. There is less desire to get an undated handbook. See link.

However, it is available free online at http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/dandv/driver/handbook/index.shtml

 

[Electrify]

Going back to the original thesis of the thread, my best bit if advice is to get as far away from Toronto as possible to do your road test. A few years back the Star did an expose and found that when the Conservatives contracted out DriveTest, they included quotas based on their location. Of course GTA ones are required to have the highest fail rates.

I had a friend fail in Aurora because he DIDN'T run a yellow light!

 

[CodeMonkey]

You wouldn't have problems with an Ontario Photo Card with Canada Post. On the list of acceptable photo identification they list both provincial identification card and the age of majority card - https://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGpolicies-e.asp#1427737 (though note that a health card isn't valid in Ontario.

Not sure why anyone would think this isn't valid. I'm sure individual employees at Canada Post may have made a mistake. But if they do so, simply point out that it's on their list of acceptable ID, and if necessary talk to their supervisor.

It's obvious a mistake. I didn't say it happens all the time, but it happens now and again; but until he got it, I didn't even know such thing existed myself. I worked in retail years ago, and we where taught that driver licences where the only valid piece of ID for credit cards transaction and proof of age in Ontario.

 

[the lemur]

I had a friend fail in Aurora because he DIDN'T run a yellow light!

I can see how the examiner might have wanted him to be decisive and go through the yellow when it had just turned, but I'm not sure that should be a failing error.

 

[Daniel Tripp]

Maybe licenses aren't too easy to get per se, but more knowledge would be better - a high tech route would be some mandatory time in a car simulator that could show people how quickly texting or tailgating can go wrong.

 

[the lemur]

Maybe licenses aren't too easy to get per se, but more knowledge would be better - a high tech route would be some mandatory time in a car simulator that could show people how quickly texting or tailgating can go wrong.

Good idea. It's one thing to learn from the manual what to do around schoolbuses, but if you don't encounter one during on-road training or your road test, that knowledge remains theoretical until you actually begin driving regularly.

 

[Daniel Tripp]

All theory, no practice!

 

[Admiral Beez]

Judging by the number of roll overs, I'd say getting a truck driving license is too easy, assuming these guys are licensed at all.

Encore needed, I think we had two truck roll overs this week, plus that fatal rear ending of traffic two weeks ago.

 

[Mercator]

It's not that it's too easy to get a license, but it's too easy to keep your license. Especially for the elderly and those with physical and mental health impairments. Physicians are way too reluctant to take their patients ability to drive away.

Hopefully, technology will solve many of these problems over the next decade(s) with the introduction of self driving cars