For decades, Omni-Lateral helped generations of Ottawa students learn to drive before making the decision to focus our efforts on the Ottawa Valley and other communities across Eastern Ontario.

A lot has changed since then.

Over the last several years, my family and I have built deep roots in Ottawa through our children's schools, sports and community activities. Ottawa isn't simply another market for us — it's our community. And with my own sons now approaching their driving years, I've started thinking differently about what I want driver education to look like here.

I want Omni-Lateral available for my kids, their friends and the families we've come to know throughout our community. That's a big part of why we're bringing Omni-Lateral back to Ottawa — beginning right here in Ottawa's west end.

Safety will remain at the heart of how we do it.

Ontario requires driving-school vehicles to be equipped with an instructor-side brake. At Omni-Lateral, we've chosen to go further by equipping our training vehicles with both instructor-side brake and gas pedal.

This extra control is especially helpful when teaching in busy Ottawa traffic. Sometimes the safest response is to brake, but other times a driver needs to accelerate to safely get out of the way. With both a brake and gas pedal on the instructor's side, our instructors can take full control when needed and help students safely handle any situation.

As a driving school operator — and as a dad with kids who will soon be learning to drive themselves — that's exactly the standard I want for our Ottawa program.

We're excited to bring Omni-Lateral home.

Colin
Ottawa Director
Omni-Lateral Driver Education Centre