Ontario's Easiest Driver Road Tests

Highest Driver’s Licence Pass Rates in Smaller Cities and Towns

Dec 11, 2008 Daniel Workman

Passing the driver's licence road test is hard in Toronto, so many Torontonians are taking the test in nearby cities and towns with higher driver test success rates.

Drivers who take their road tests in small Northern Ontario towns like Espanola (population 5,400) and Kapuskasing (population 9,300) pass more than 90% of the time.

The quest for a driver’s licence (spelled license in the U.S.) is much more difficult in Toronto (population 2.5 million), Ontario’s largest and busiest city. In the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), the driver test pass rate is about 55%.

Daniel Dale, Staff Reporter for the Toronto Star, points out that traffic is much denser in Toronto than in smaller testing regions. Toronto locations also test more immigrants, some of whom struggle with Canadian driving rules. Finally, the much higher volume of driver tests in Toronto can heighten stress; this in turn can increase driver test failure particularly among nervous drivers.

Top 25 Easiest Places to Pass Ontario Driver’s Test

Based on data from the provincial Ministry of Transportation, the list below shows the overall pass rates for general driver road tests conducted in Ontario from 2006 to January 21, 2008.

1. Espanola … 90.2% pass rate (out of 2,774 road tests)
2. Kapuskasing … 90.2% (1,497)
3. Sault Ste. Marie … 90.1% (6,464)
4. Sudbury … 87.2% (11,343)
5. Winchester … 85.8% (4,599)
6. Brockville … 85% (4,500)
7. Timmins … 84.4% (4,336)
8. Kirkland Lake … 83.5% (758)
9. Cornwall … 81.9% (7,662)
10. Kenora … 81.6% (1,531)
11. Belleville … 81.5% (12,887)
12. Sarnia … 80.9% (10,204)
13. Thunder Bay … 80.8% (9,860)
14. North Bay … 78.9% (6,225)
15. Kingston … 78.1% (15,281)
16. Barrie … 77.8% (24,579)
17. Bancroft … 77.1% (3,360)
18. Orillia … 77.1% (11,797)
19. Hawkesbury … 76.6% (5,123)
20. Dryden … 76.6% (1,845)
21. Pembroke … 76.5% (3,960)
22. Chatham … 76% (11,303)
23. Fort Frances … 75.6% (1,398)
24. Peterborough … 75.5% (12,616)
25. Woodstock … 74.4% (7,900).

The above 25 driver testing locations represent 18.3% of the total provincial road tests for Ontario.

Locations Close to Toronto with High Pass Rates

Ontario residents can take their driver road test anywhere they want in the province. So, many driving students shop around for the testing location where they are most likely to succeed.

This loophole allows a teenager who lives in a Toronto suburb with a high driver test failure rates to choose to try for their driver’s licence in a nearby city with a much higher driver pass rate. For example, Toronto is about an hour drive from Barrie where the driver test pass rate is over 50% higher.

1. Barrie (90 kilometres or 50 miles from Toronto) … 77.8% pass rate
2. Orillia (134 kilometres or 83 miles from Toronto) … 77.1%
3. Brantford (100 kilometres or 62 miles from Toronto) … 73.1%
4. Burlington (62 kilometres or 39 miles from Toronto) … 72.8%
5. Guelph (96 kilometres or 59 miles from Toronto) … 71.5%
6. Lindsay (131 kilometres or 81 miles from Toronto) … 69.5%
7. Oshawa Centre (58 kilometres or 36 miles from Toronto) … 67.9%
8. Kitchener (105 kilometres or 65 miles from Toronto) … 67.7%
9. Orangeville (84 kilometres or 52 miles from Toronto) … 66.2%
10. Hamilton (70 kilometres or 43 miles from Toronto) … 64.6%
11. St. Catharines (110 kilometres or 68 miles from Toronto) … 64.2%
12. Aurora (48 kilometres or 30 miles from Toronto) … 63.5%.

Daniel Dale interviewed five driving instructors from the Greater Toronto Area, who confirmed that a large percentage of their students take their driver’s license tests at testing facilities outside Toronto. The provincial auditor report for 2007 suggests that, for at least two facilities outside the GTA, more than 50% of driving test takers came in from Toronto.

Driver’s Licence Test Difficulty Varies

Even at the most demanding driving test locations, there are sometimes wide variations in driver test success rates depending on the instructor. In addition, the tests themselves may vary by location.

Still, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation is considering a restriction that will require students to take their driver road test at the authorized location closest to where they live. This will help ensure that drivers have been tested in driving areas where they will likely drive, particularly for highway driving.

Sources for this Article

This article presents independent calculations and insights based on Ontario Ministry of Transportation data and the Toronto Star article Would-be drivers shop for easy road tests (by Daniel Dale on December 7, 2008).

The copyright of the article Ontario's Easiest Driver Road Tests in Insurance is owned by Daniel Workman. Permission to republish Ontario's Easiest Driver Road Tests in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Driving in traffic includes pedestrians