Ontario's "Right Hand Drive Vehicle" decal law -- clarified

There is a ton of confusion about the necessity to run a “Right Hand Drive” vehicle decal on your car in Ontario.

There is actually law for this in the Highway Traffic Act, but it includes one very important exception.

Essentially if you have working turn signals, you do not need a decal.

The intent behind the legislation is related to hand signals for turning and stopping. The sticker was mandated to let motorists behind you know what side of the car to look to for your hand signals.

Since 99% of our cars have working turn signals, the above mandate is moot.

There are lots of police officers who are not aware of the exception.

Running a decal is definitely helpful if you want the lowest chance of police interference.

But because I don’t want an ugly decal on my car, I keep a single page with both relevant sections of the HTA in my glovebox to show to an officer in case I get pulled over and they don’t care to listen to my explanation.

I even bolded the exception to make it as clear as possible.

ONTARIO HIGHWAY TRAFFIC ACT

R.S.O. 1990 Ch. H8

63. Every vehicle that is equipped with a right hand drive shall, unless it is equipped with a mechanical or electrical signal device as described in subsection 142 (6), have prominently displayed on the rear thereof, in bold face letters of not less than 50 millimetres in height and of a colour which is in contrast to that of the vehicle, the words,
“RIGHT HAND DRIVE VEHICLE”.

and

142 (6) A mechanical or electrical signal device shall clearly indicate the intention to turn, shall be visible and understandable during day-time and night-time from the front and from the rear of the vehicle for a distance of 30 metres, and shall be self-illuminated when used at any time from one-half hour after sunset to one-half hour before sunrise.

I hope that clears up the confusion.

Just got a ticket for this not long ago. Cop didn’t bother listening to my explanation (lack of evidence [copy of above HTA sections] didn’t help) Booked a court date to go fight it.

Other than having a a copy of those HTA sections, is there anything else you have to do to make them “official”? I feel as though a cop would just not believe me if I bust out a sheet of paper, and try to contradict him/her.

It’s kinda silly that the cop wasn’t willing to listen. I’ve only driven past a seat belt inspection and the cops didn’t bother me, I was worried that they’d throw this ticket at me… Thankfully you’ll be able to win however it sucks that it’ll cost you a day of your time…

Agreed. And Mike is right. You only need the sticker/decal if you do not have electric turn signals. I have on of my 93 Supra though as insurance against this kind of stuff.

I have court for my ticket on May 20th, 2011. Hopefully me showing them those tow passages in the HTA is enough to get them to drop it. Even better if the cop just bails.