Canadians using the entire lane
Yesterday I was biking up Queen street in Toronto, taking up the lane right lane as I usually do with little problems, when a cabbie starts tailgating me and honking like a madman. I decide to ignore him, especially since there is a parked car just a few meters ahead, but he passes me without changing the lane, purposely blowing by me and missing me by a few inches. Of course he had to immediately change lanes again because of the parked car. I caught up to him -- interesting how he'd risk my life to gain no time on his trip whatsoever -- and really gave it to him, calling him an ignorant driver and letting him know that he'll kill someone one of these days. He was pretty convinced, however, that I have to hug the curb if a car is overtaking me. I decided to look it up and found this in the highway traffic act:
Slow vehicles to travel on right side
147. (1) Any vehicle travelling upon a roadway at less than the normal speed of traffic at that time and place shall, where practicable, be driven in the right-hand lane then available for traffic or as close as practicable to the right hand curb or edge of the roadway. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 147 (1).
It appears the cabbie was right, although "or as close as practicable" is a little ambiguous. Any Canadians know for sure who was in the wrong here? I hate to think that I've been breaking the law this whole time by taking up the right lane, it is really much safer in my opinion the majority of the time.