● Ottawa police using sonar to keep cars one metre from cyclists.

Ottawa police are using a sonar device to catch motorists that fail to leave one metre of space between their vehicles and a bicycle when passing a cyclist, according to a story in the Ottawa Citizen.

The sonar devices are mounted on police bicycles, and an alarm goes off if a car passes one metre or closer. When that happens, police further ahead pulls over the motorist. Right now the police are only giving out warnings, but they could issue tickets with a $180 fine and two demerit points.

Last September Ontario passed a law requiring motorists to leave at least one metre of space when passing a cyclists. Unfortunately, many motorists still don’t do this, especially when there isn’t much space on a road.