Monday 20 June 2016

HOV Lane Access Permanence Granted!

EV drivers who are holders of Green Licence Plates in Ontario can breathe easy as of today if their regular commute involves use of the HOV lanes as the previous June 30th deadline for single driver access has been removed and replaced with permanence!

The Green Plate page on the MTO website has finally updated today to show this:


This is great news for both current and future Ontario EV drivers and for attaining the eventual goal of an electric Ontario.

See you in the HOV lanes!

Tuesday 7 June 2016

Some Signs of Life

From both myself and the MTO.

I myself have been tied upnwith some other things and have not had the time to sit down and write over the past week or two. That should be changing soon and there will be some advocacy pieces for charging infrastructure in Ontario coming in the next few months.

As for the MTO, I have an update on the Green Plate HOV access situation. While unfortunately not the news we are probably looking for (that the earlier proposal has been implemented), the MTO website has been updated to reflect the proposal of making the HOV access for Green Plates permanent.


Knowing the pace the government tends to work at (somewhere between sloth and snail) this is welcome progress, but I would say not to expect to see anything finalized until the 11th hour or possibly a few weeks after the deadline.

If the June 30th expiration date does pass without permanence being implemented, I would advise to stay out of the HOV lanes until further notice. While the signs still may be up, the expiration is written into the highway traffic act so you will technically be in the wrong, and all it will take is one over zealous police officer to land yourself a $110 ticket and 3 demerit points. And while you may win in court, is it really worth it?

I myself will be staying out of the HOV lanes if the deadline passes, which is a shame as I just started using a route that allows me to take advantage of them in the mornings.

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