Pretty soon in the province of Ontario it will be against the law to use a cell phone or other mobile electronic devices while driving unless it is hands-free. The rest of Canada will be soon to follow Ontario’s precedent. Police will soon start to pull over motorist who are fumbling with their cell phone, GPS, or other electronic device while driving. The prize for being pulled over for using such mobile devices is a fine to be paid to your local government.
To avoid these unwanted tickets you can use hands-free technology such as Bluetooth, voice dialing, speech recognition or similar. Bluetooth is a common feature in the mid-range to high-end GPS systems available on the market today. Using Bluetooth you can receive and send phone calls. If you have speech recognition you can tell your GPS verbally your next destination. It costs a little extra for the hands free options but the add-on will pay for itself.
One thing to mention is that very few people know that mounting to your windshield in Canada is not allowed. This law is usually only enforced if the devices are mounted on the windshield in a way that is unsafe or is plainly in the drivers line of sight of the road. It is best to mount your GPS below the dash and not on it to ensure that you have an unobstructed view of the road. Use your common sense when using mobile electronics and you should have nothing to worry about.
Drive safe and have fun. Here are some units to look into that have some of the Hands free.
Garmin Nuvi 880 – The Garmin Nuvi 880 comes with Bluetooth capabilities to answer your calls hands free. The unit also has the best speech recognition system allowing you to speak to your GPS and tell it where you want to go with little screen interaction. Using the Garmin Nuvi 880 GPS navigator you can keep both hands on the wheel. (to limit poor audio quality it is recommended to use the external microphone capabilities of the GPS)
Garmin Nuvi 760, Nuvi 770, and Nuvi 780 – The Nuvi 700 series lacks the speech recognition but comes Bluetooth ready for hands free calling. The Nuvi 7XX series is great for its added features such as tracklogs and pre-planned routes.
*** The above devices have the capability to load external points of interest (POI). Users commonly load the locations of red-light cameras and radar hotspots to get warnings before approaching the area in question. These databases for your GPS are free in most cases and will save you money in tickets***
Where to buy?
GPS City is the recommended store to purchase your next hands free enabled GPS. They offer knowledgeable service and great prices.
