Ontario Distracted Driving Penalties to increase

People are ignoring the present penalties. This should get their attention.

If not, it'll suck to be them.

When I walk or drive around the city or neighbourhood I see at least 2-3 drivers still using handheld cellphones, either talking or texting.
Penalties should be far higher since "Distracted Driving" has surpassed drunks behind the wheel killing people.

I know if I use my cellphone in my car via Bluetooth and completely hands free part of my attention is drawn away from driving.

Totally agree... you still see it a lot. Stiffer penalties are needed.

Thanks for the information.

to get people's attention to stop texting and driving ...

A couple of things come to mind here. Although we have fines for distracted drivers in B.C. Doesn't seem to stop the people who are supposed to enforce them. Its $165.00 for getting caught on your Cell phone, I've seen one RCMP officer on one at a stoplight. Cars all around but still he did it. School zone fines. Not sure what they are, but one section i travel has one of those speed advisory Cameras. Speed through here is 50km. I followed 2 different RCMP Cars and both were doing 70.

In Alberta it seems that the distracted driving law has made things worse... Now we have people driving while looking down at their crotch.. the tint shops are having a surge in business as more and more cars seem to have tinted their windows so you can not see in.

There is very little enforcement that I can see.. one can not drive more than ~20 minutes in Edmonton without seeing several violations. The police would much rather sit behind a tree with photo radar than have to get out and confront a violator.

There are times when the police use the cellphone for communication rather than the car radio, for that there is an excemption in the law!

Actually, Edmonton Police Service have been handing out lots of distracted driving tickets. Here are quotes from a Global News article in May 2017:

In the first quarter of 2017, 2,455 distracted driving tickets were issued to drivers in Edmonton... Based on the number of tickets handed out last year, Edmonton police are on pace to write 13,334 distracted driving tickets this year. (2017)

By comparison, revenue from photo radar in Edmonton is DOWN by $3,000,000 because people are slowing down - reports a CBC article from September 2017.

Perhaps focused enforcement is working in Edmonton!

Seems a lot of people see what we all see......NO enforcement!!
News reports are like polls, no one ever asks you but polls still come out saying the majority said this. Never met some one who has been asked. So where did all this info really come from?
I say its the police trying to say they did this and they did that and this is what happened and the news just reported it like usual, didn't bother to check if it was true or not. I spend time in Edmonton and Calgary every years because we have relatives there. Never saw one this year when we went up. Oh...i know why....it was -24 to -30 when we were up there after the 26th of December. We stayed for 8 days, and yes we were out and about...lol.

Edmonton has recently decided to include playgrounds to the school zone reduced speed zones.. I am sure the revenue source will be back up in 2018.

Having a 30 km/Hr zone along a green space.. at 0700 or 2045 in the winter when not a creature is stirring.. in the dark.. is nothing but a gold mine to be exploited.