In the Ontario, a cyclist is the driver of vehicle by way of the definition of a bicycle as a vehicle in the Province’s Highway Traffic Act. Ontario’s cyclists have the same rights and responsibilities as other drivers of vehicles.
Ontario’s traffic law provides fair protection of these rights when interpreted literally by Ontario’s police, government, and the courts. Unfortunately the latter is frequently not always the case and as such the view that cyclists should yield their space to drivers of motor vehicles still prevails.
The OCBC endorsed the phrase coined by the world’s leading bicycle transportation engineer, John Forester, “cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles”.