SMART COMMUTE TERMS AND CONDITIONS

IMPORTANT! Please read the terms of this release form. Your use of the Smart Commute website being SmartCommute.ca (the “Website”) and the transportation mode matching application that is part of the Smart Commute program being the SmartCommute.ca App (the “App”), (the Website and the App together, “Smart Commute”) are subject to Your agreement on the terms below. By accessing, browsing or registering for an account on the Website, You confirm that You have read, understood, accept and agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions, without limitation or qualification.

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICE

ASSUMPTION OF RISK, WAIVER OF CLAIMS AND INDEMNITY AGREEMENT

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!

Description of SmartCommute.ca and the SmartCommute.ca App

The Website and App are online systems that provide a method where individuals interested in transportation mode matching (carpooling) may choose to contact each other on an online bulletin board. Smart Commute provides a virtual bulletin board available to the general public that allows You to find, choose and accept transportation mode matching arrangements.

Smart Commute is being offered by the City of Toronto, City of Hamilton, The Regional Municipality of York, The Regional Municipality of Durham, The City of Greater Sudbury and any other municipality that, provides Smart Commute (together, the “Participating Municipalities”) as a courtesy. Smart Commute was developed by and is hosted by the software developer, RideShark Corporation.

Voluntary Nature of System & Assumption of Risk

You acknowledge and agree to the following:

  1. Your use of Smart Commute is voluntary and entirely at Your own discretion;
  2. No background checks of drivers or participants, driver record checks or insurance checks have been conducted, nor will be conducted, by the Participating Municipalities or RideShark Corporation;
  3. The Participating Municipalities and RideShark Corporation make absolutely no assurances or guarantees of any kind regarding the condition, suitability or safety of the vehicles being used by drivers participating in the Smart Commute program, including whether participants and drivers are insured.The Participating Municipalities advise You to exercise caution when selecting a potential carpool partner.

The Participating Municipalities advise You to exercise caution when selecting a potential carpool partner.

By participating in Smart Commute, You agree that You are entirely responsible for Your own safety and that You are participating in Smart Commute at Your own risk.

Participants’ Responsibility for Insurance

As a Driver, You are responsible for and agree to notify Your insurance provider of Your intent to transport non-family member passengers in Your vehicle and to ensure that You have adequate insurance to protect Yourself and Your passengers. As a passenger, You are responsible for and agree to ensure that the driver has an acceptable driving record,is licensed accordingly and has adequate insurance to protect both the driver and passengers.

Drivers participating in Smart Commute’s carpool matching system must hold a valid Ontario driver’s license and comply with all conditions and requirements of the graduated licensing system as set out by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. You agree that Participating Municipalities are in no way responsible for verifying or certifying the insurance and license status of Drivers providing Smart Commute carpooling and acknowledge and agree that the Participating Municipalities do not take any steps to verify or certify the insurance and license status of Drivers.

Privacy

Information about Your use of Smart Commute, as well as personal information that You provide to the Participating Municipalities, are subject to the Smart Commute Privacy Statement. For more information, please review our full Smart Commute Privacy Statement.

Notice of Collection

Personal information is being collected from Smart Commute by the Participating Municipalities for the purposes set out in section 5 above. Questions regarding this collection may be addressed to the contact at the municipality in which a user’s employer is located, as set out below:

  • City of Toronto: The Environment and Energy Division collects personal information under the legal authority of Section 136(c) of the City of Toronto Act, 2006, and the City of Toronto By-law Number 118-2020. Questions about this collection can be directed to Smart Commute Program Manager, Environment and Energy Division, 2nd Floor, 55 John St., Toronto, Ontario M5V 3C6 or by telephone at 416-397-5746.
  • City of Hamilton: Transportation Planning Section collects personal information under the legal authority of Section 227 of the Municipal Act, 2001. Questions about this collection can be directed to Program Manager Sustainable Mobility, Hamilton City Hall, 71 Main St W, Hamilton, ON L8P 4Y5 or by telephone at 905-546-2424 ext. 5129.
  • The Regional Municipality of York: The Transportation and Infrastructure Planning department collects personal information under the legal authority of Section 227 of the Municipal Act, 2001. Questions about this collection can be directed to Program Manager, Sustainable Mobility, York Region Administrative Centre, 17250 Yonge Street, Newmarket, ON L3Y 6Z1 or by telephone at 877-464-9675 ext. 75051.
  • The Regional Municipality of Durham Region: This information is collected under the legal authority of Section 227 of the Municipal Act, 2001 for the purpose of administering the Smart Commute program in the Region of Durham. Questions about this collection should be forwarded to the Manager, Transportation Planning, Region of Durham at 605 Rossland Rd. E, Whitby ON, L1N 6A3 or 905-668-7711 or 1-800-372-1102
  • The City of Greater Sudbury: This information is collected under the legal authority of Section 227 of the Municipal Act, 2001,O. 2001, c. 25 for the purpose of administering the Smart Commute program. Questions about this collection may be directed to the Active Transportation Coordinator, City of Greater Sudbury, PO Box 5000 Stn A, 200 Brady Street, Sudbury, Ontario, P3A 5P3 or by calling 705-674-4455 ext. 3648.

Reliance Upon Information and Password

To become a registered user of Smart Commute (“Registered User”) You must complete the registration process by providing us with current, complete and accurate information as prompted by the registration form (“Registration Data”). You agree to maintain and update this Registration Data as required to keep it current, complete and accurate. When You register, You will be provided with a user ID and password. You must ensure that Your password is kept secure and confidential at all times and take measures to maintain the confidential nature of Your password. You acknowledge and agree that You are responsible for any and all activities that occur under or through the use of Your password. You agree that Participating Municipalities can rely upon Your Registration Data for all purposes related to Smart Commute. You agree to notify the Participating Municipalities immediately if You become aware of any unauthorized use of Your password, or if You believe the confidentiality of Your password has been breached. You can notify the Participating Municipalities using the contact information provided above under “Notice of Collection”.

Registered User Conduct

You agree that:

  • You are at least 18 years of age;
  • You will not access or use Smart Commute, or any Smart Commute activity, for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms of Use;
  • You will access Smart Commute solely for its intended purposes;
  • You will not use Smart Commute to directly or indirectly:
    • defame, abuse, harass, stalk or threaten others;
    • collect information about others, including email addresses, without their consent;
    • create a false identity;
    • transmit or upload any material that contains harmful or deleterious computer programs (including, without limitation, viruses, malware, trojan horses, worms, time bombs or cancelbots);
    • transmit or upload any computer programs or other material in breach of any intellectual property laws, rights of privacy or any other Applicable Laws and Regulations (“Applicable Laws”); 
    • interfere with or disrupt networks connected to the Website or violate the regulations, policies or procedures of such networks; o attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Website, App, other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to Smart Commute, through password mining or any other means; 
    • frame any part of Smart Commute material by including advertising or other revenue generating material; or
    • interfere with another member's use and enjoyment of Smart Commute.
  • You will comply with all Applicable Laws and are solely responsible for all acts or omissions that occur under Your or through the use of Your password.
  • You acknowledge and agree that if You engage in any of the activities listed above, Your right to use Smart Commute may be terminated immediately and without notice.

Provision of Services

We may modify, suspend or discontinue any or all of the contents of Smart Commute from time to time in our absolute discretion.

Termination

We may terminate Your access to Smart Commute at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately, for any reason whatsoever. If You wish to terminate Your status as a Registered User of Smart Commute Your only recourse is to delete Your account. Upon termination, Your right to use Smart Commute immediately ceases.

Communications from Participating Municipalities

You agree that the Participating Municipalities may send emails, newsletters and other forms of electronic communications to You about the Smart Commute program from time to time, unless You advise the Participating Municipalities that You do not wish to receive email, newsletters, or other forms of electronic communications.

Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability

You understand and agree that You use Smart Commute at Your own risk. Smart Commute is provided on an “as-is” basis and “as available” basis without representations or warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of title, non-infringement, or implied warranties or conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, other than those warranties and conditions which are incapable of exclusion under law. The Participating Municipalities do not warrant that Your use of Smart Commute will be secure, uninterrupted, always available, error-free or will meet Your requirements, or that any defects in Smart Commute will be corrected. The Participating Municipalities disclaim all liability for, and no warranty or condition is made with respect to, the connectivity and availability of Smart Commute.

You hereby acknowledge and agree that under no circumstances will the Participating Municipalities, their elected officials, officers, directors, employees, agents and third party content providers or licensors be liable to You or any third party for any loss whatsoever caused by Your use or reliance on information obtained through the content distributed by the Participating Municipalities as well as any direct, indirect, incidental, special, punitive or consequential damages or injury arising out of Your use or inability to use Smart Commute, or out of the breach of any warranty, or caused by any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, malware, communication line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to and/or alteration of Smart Commute, no matter whether such claims are based in contract, tort, negligence, strict liability or any other cause of action, and regardless of whether the Participating Municipalities have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event will the Participating Municipalities be liable for any damages whatsoever, whether direct, indirect, general, special compensatory, consequential, and/or incidental, arising out of or relating to the conduct of You or anyone else in connection with the use of Smart Commute, including without limitation, bodily injury, emotional distress, and /or any other damages resulting from communications or meetings with other registered users of Smart Commute. This includes any claims, losses or damages arising from the conduct of other users who have registered under false pretenses or who attempt to defraud, injure or harm You.

Waiver of Claims & Indemnification

The Participating Municipalities and RideShark Corporation are not and will not be responsible or liable for any personal injuries, deaths, property damages, financial losses or any other damages or losses that may result from Your use of Smart Commute or participation in Smart Commute.

By participating in and using Smart Commute, You hereby agree to waive any and all claims that You have or may have in the future against the Participating Municipalities and RideShark Corporation, and to release the Participating Municipalities and RideShark Corporation from and against any and all liability for loss, damage, expense or injury, including death, that You, Your next of kin or a third party may suffer as a result of or in relation to Your participation in, involvement in, or use of Smart Commute.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Participating Municipalities, their elected officials, officers, employees and agents from any claims, actions, costs (including legal costs), or losses by any third party due to or arising out of (a) Your use of or inability to 6 use Smart Commute (b) any user postings made by You, (c) Your violation of any terms of this Agreement or Your violation of any rights of a third party, or (d) Your violation of any Applicable Laws, rules or regulations. You further agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Participating Municipalities, their elected officials, officers, directors and employees, from any and all liability for personal injury, death, property damages and any other loss, and resulting claims (including legal costs) or actions, arising from Your participation in or involvement in Smart Commute.

You release the Participating Municipalities, their elected officials, officers, employees, directors and agents from any claims and agree that You will not make any claim against the Participating Municipalities, or any one of them, in respect of or arising from any unauthorized use of Your password. You agree to indemnify and hold the Participating Municipalities, their elected officials, officials, officers, employees and agents harmless from any claims, actions, costs (including legal costs), or losses by the Participating Municipalities or any third party due to or arising out of unauthorized use of Your password.

Copyright and Limited Reproduction Notices

The contents of Smart Commute are the intellectual property of the Participating Municipalities and its licensees, or of RideShark Corporation and RideShark Corporation’s licensees. You acknowledge and agree that no part of Smart Commute may be distributed or copied for any commercial purpose by You and that You are prohibited from incorporating Smart Commute material or any part of it in any other work or publication, whether in hard copy, electronic or any other form. You acknowledge and agree that no part of Smart Commute may be resold, published, copied, reproduced, transmitted or stored by You (including in any other Website or other electronic form) except that You may print, or download to Your hard drive, extracts from Smart Commute only for Your own personal and non-commercial use.

Amendment

Participating Municipalities reserve the right, in their sole discretion, to modify, alter or otherwise update these Terms of Use at any time and for any reason. Modifications to these Terms of Use shall be effective immediately upon posting. We will notify You of any changes by updating the "Last Updated" notice next to the link to these terms and conditions. By using Smart Commute after notice has been posted of modifications, alterations or updates, You agree to be bound by the modified terms.

Linking

The contents of Smart Commute may include links to third party materials (“Linked Sites”). The Participating Municipalities and RideShark Corporation have no responsibility for the accuracy, currency or reliability of the content or security of any Linked Sites and will not be liable for any direct or indirect loss or damage suffered by You from accessing, using, relying on or trading with third parties. These Linked Sites are provided to You only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any Linked Site does not imply our approval or endorsement of the Linked Sites or any association with their operators. You must not add any Linked Sites to Smart Commute and we reserve the right to prohibit any User added Linked Sites to Smart Commute. You agree to remove any Linked Site upon our request.

Advertisers

Any dealings with any advertiser or other third party appearing on Smart Commute are solely between You and the advertiser or other third party. You acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible or liable for any part of any such dealings or promotions.

Law

These Terms of Use are governed by and will be construed in accordance with the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada. You irrevocably attorn to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Province of Ontario and all courts competent to hear appeals therefrom with respect to all matters and disputes relating to or in connection with Smart Commute, these Terms of Use, and the Smart Commute Privacy Statement.

Severability

If any portion of these Terms of Use are deemed to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

Contact

If You have any questions or concerns in relation to the Website, App or these Terms of Use, wish to report unauthorized use of Your password or need assistance to delete Your account please contact us at info@rideshark.com.

Last Updated: June 5, 2023