I was driving along Dundas Street in Toronto. It was past 7 p.m. and as usual, traffic was at a near standstill. The road was strewn with vehicles at various angles as drivers tried to nose forward. A streetcar crawled along its tracks, stopped, opened its doors and put on its lights. As this piece of theatre played out sirens blared and red and blue lights swirled.
No one moved.
An ambulance was coming, either on the way to an emergency or already transporting someone in distress to hospital, but no one could discern what direction it was coming from. Then I noticed the lights in my rear-view. I managed to pull over to the right side of the road and stop and waited for my fellow motorists to do likewise. Instead, there was a mixture of confusion and apathy.
While some drivers did pull over to allow the ambulance to pass others remained stuck, despite the fact they could have moved out of the way. Others made faint-hearted attempts to move, veering slightly. Pedestrians crossed the street as the ambulance approached. The entire scene was an exercise in ambivalence. It felt like a performance art piece called “Whatever.”
Surely every driver knows that when an emergency vehicle – a tow truck, fire truck, police car, public utility vehicle or ambulance – with flashing lights approaches, they are required to slow down and move over to another lane. This applies to any road with a speed limit of 80 kilometres an hour or less.
Section 159 (1) of the province’s Highway Traffic Act states that drivers immediately bring their vehicles to a standstill “as near as is practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway and parallel therewith and clear of any intersection.”
Ontario’s “Move Over” law - Section 159 (2, 3) - applies when drivers approach emergency vehicles with lights flashing. Drivers “travelling on the same side of the highway shall slow down and proceed with caution, having due regard for traffic on and the conditions of the highway and the weather.”
Fines are severe. A first offence gets you a minimum $400 fine up to a maximum of $2,000. Subsequent offences range from $1,000 to $4,000, imprisonment for six months, or both.
So why the confusion?
It’s straightforward. Hear sirens? See flashing lights? If it’s safe, slow down and move to another lane. If it’s not, at least stop. This will allow the emergency vehicle to pass with a modicum of safety. Once the vehicle has moved by, cautiously merge back into traffic.
My Dundas Street incident was just one of many that evening. That night I pulled over for four emergency vehicles, and each time they passed through a troubling percentage of drivers made little or no attempt to get out of the way.
Is this where we are, people?
Some will blame bike lanes and traffic calming. Opinion is divided. In 2021, The Guardian reported that in London “low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTN), popup cycle lanes, widened pavements and other walking and cycling schemes introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have not hindered ambulance response times.” The BBC reported in 2023 that a simulation of a proposed LTN in East Oxford found that “LTNs can delay emergency vehicles by up to 45 seconds.” The average trip takes seven minutes, so this is a significant amount of time.
Of course, this really isn’t a case for excuses. It’s “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” or, as Confucius said, “Don’t do unto others what you don’t want done unto you.”
Imagine you’re in that ambulance or it’s on its way to save someone you love – move over and stop.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story stated section 159 (1) of Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act was the ‘Move Over’ law. In fact, that law refers to parts 2 and 3, where drivers must slow down proceed with caution around emergency vehicles. This version has been corrected.
Andrew Clark