Licensing system in the works for driving schools, instructors in Oshawa

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

After a series of complaints that have been ongoing for years, the city of Oshawa is now looking into the possibility of creating a licensing system for driving schools and their instructors, along with creating a restricted area where these trainers are not allowed take their newbie drivers.

At the most recent meeting of the Corporate Services committee, councillors heard from resident Harvey Lee who explained that Warren Avenue where he lives is “inundated” with driving school cars, many of them from Pickering, Markham and Toronto, who are all teaching their prospective drivers. The proximity of Lee’s Warren Avenue home to the Oshawa Drive Test Centre at the Midtown Mall, which uses the street in one of its routes when licensing drivers, makes it a hot spot for trainers hoping to give their students a heads up glance at what may be coming later on.

Lee, who has been in touch with council about the problem previously, with issues raised dating back to 2015, says he has taken the issue to the driving schools themselves.

“They seem absolutely incapable of doing anything about it, or unwilling,” he says.

Lee also approached the Drive Test Centre as well, who said they had also received several complaints like his, and have gone so far as to inform all driving schools to refrain from using the approved test routes and banned them from using the parking lot outside the centre.

Illustrating his point quite clearly for councillors, during the weekend ahead of his appearance at committee, Lee documented the number of driving school cars using Warren Avenue. He noted that leaving his home at 10 a.m. there were two cars practicing parallel parking. When he returned there three others.

The following day, Lee states that driving schools “visited” Warren Avenue on six separate occasions.

Councillor Rick Kerr labelled the numbers as “staggering.”

Now, following a recommendation from city staff, council has approved funding to create a licensing system that would require all driving schools who use Oshawa streets to be registered, including all their instructors. The system would require all cars to have mechanical safety certificates, display a city identification plate on the bumper and would also facilitate the creation of basic operating standards for these companies. It’s estimated to cost $27,600 for the first year. Currently, all driving schools are also licensed by the province. According to a city report, there are approximately 58 ministry approved driving schools in Durham Region.

The system would also create a restricted area for these driving schools with a north boundary of Adelaide Avenue East/West, a southern boundary of Bloor Street East/West, an eastern boundary at Riston Road and the western boundary at Thornton Road.

“By creating this restricted area you create this reverse magnet, which spreads the practicing of driving to other areas so it’s not intensified in one area,” says Ken Mann,  policy and research manager with the city.

This boundary mirrors the area used by the test centre when carrying out its provincial drive tests.

“It has been a challenge for a long time and this gives staff the opportunity to deal with it,” says Mayor John Henry, who also noted that it becomes an issue of safety when out of town students learn to drive on city roads that are perhaps less congested than what they will really be driving on when they get their licenses. “They come out here and they learn in a city that’s not as busy,” Henry says. “It really doesn’t make sense so I think that’s unfair to those new young drivers.”

A draft bylaw is expected to come back in the fall.