Highways in Canada

[Innsertnamehere]

Well considering several Ontario highways are already 110.. you are just wrong.

I fully expect the ford government to implement a near universal 110 limit across the province at the completion of their “pilot” on the QEW, 402, and 417.

[Dengler Avenue]

I also expect that even if we bump from 110 kph to 120 kph, stunt speed will stay at 150 kph. I do wonder how much 10 kph and 20 kph over cost respectively when the speed limit’s that high though. I can’t imagine that 24 kph over will still cost $119 and 3 demerit points but that 6 kph more means impound and 15(?) points.

Also 401’s light only because of stay-home order. It’s super rare that one can pull 120 kph between exits 351 (Highway 427) and 375 (Highway 404).

[rousseau]

I wonder if they'll publicize the data for speeding tickets and accidents during the pilot? Raising the speed limit on all 400-series highways will be dead in the water if it looks like things are even a tiny bit worse.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by rousseau

I think I've confirmed for myself that I don't think any of the 400 highways in Ontario will ever increase the speed limit beyond 100 km/h. Because today I drove between 140 and 150 km/h on the 401 to Toronto and back and was passed several times. And I wasn't passing cars by much, either.

The traffic was amazingly free-flowing and light. Not only were there were no bumper-to-bumper slowdowns or complete stoppages, there were long empty stretches with barely a car or two. Never experienced anything like it. And I'm now certain that we won't be speeding the 401 up. Why?

1. We do not have German-calibre lane discipline in Ontario. We're a lot better than Americans at keeping the passing lane clear, but we're not Germans. It wouldn't be safe to go any faster than we do already.

2. If the limit was 120 km/h I would have gone up to 170 km/h (50 km/h over the limit is an immediate licence suspension and your car is impounded for 7 day, so Ontario drivers are careful not to do that). I don't think we really want that many drivers going 170 km/h on the 401. I know I'm a good driver, I've got German stock in my ethnic heritage, but I'm not so sure about the rest of you...

This will all be moot once things return to normal because traffic levels will organically prohibit speeding anyway. So perhaps the debate, if there is one, is a red herring.

The only reason the traffic is flowing so fast is due in part that there is less cars on the road due to to Covid. Once we go back to normal traffic patterns, the speed will drop. However, the limit will still rise as most people are not pushing the 50 over limit.

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by rousseau

today I drove between 140 and 150 km/h on the 401

I know I'm a good driver

uh...Going nearly 50% faster?

If you're a good driver you would have obeyed the speed limit or at least be somewhere close to it.

Also why are you in such a rush? What do you have to get to these days? The grocery store?

Please drive safe. Our EMS don't need the preventable car crash victims in the ER right now (or ever).

[wave46]

Originally Posted by rousseau

I think I've confirmed for myself that I don't think any of the 400 highways in Ontario will ever increase the speed limit beyond 100 km/h. Because today I drove between 140 and 150 km/h on the 401 to Toronto and back and was passed several times. And I wasn't passing cars by much, either.

The traffic was amazingly free-flowing and light. Not only were there were no bumper-to-bumper slowdowns or complete stoppages, there were long empty stretches with barely a car or two. Never experienced anything like it. And I'm now certain that we won't be speeding the 401 up. Why?

1. We do not have German-calibre lane discipline in Ontario. We're a lot better than Americans at keeping the passing lane clear, but we're not Germans. It wouldn't be safe to go any faster than we do already.

2. If the limit was 120 km/h I would have gone up to 170 km/h (50 km/h over the limit is an immediate licence suspension and your car is impounded for 7 day, so Ontario drivers are careful not to do that). I don't think we really want that many drivers going 170 km/h on the 401. I know I'm a good driver, I've got German stock in my ethnic heritage, but I'm not so sure about the rest of you...

This will all be moot once things return to normal because traffic levels will organically prohibit speeding anyway. So perhaps the debate, if there is one, is a red herring.

I'm not sure where you're coming from, but on my various travels on the 401 between Kitchener and Toronto, sustaining more than 120-125 km/h was simply not possible for long stretches.

As you mention, even though lane discipline is better, there always seems to be some clod who refuses to yield the left lane every few kilometres, forcing people to pass on the right.

There's also the matter of the rolling convoy too. That section of the 401 seems to have the most large trucks on it, forcing much of the traffic that ordinarily camps in the middle lane on other 400-series highways leftwards.

Then there's everyone's favourite aesthetically pleasing town - Milton. By that time, any hopes of free-flowing traffic have died in a sea of brake lights. The last time I was able to run sustained speeds quickly was Canada Day, but I've not traveled that stretch since then.

Any hopes of German-style autobahns in Canada will be sorely disappointed.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by wave46

There's also the matter of the rolling convoy too. That section of the 401 seems to have the most large trucks on it, forcing much of the traffic that ordinarily camps in the middle lane on other 400-series highways leftwards.

.

While we all appreciate the work truckers do to keep society supplied, don't we all just looooove how one large truck will pull out to the left lane to pass another when the former is maybe going 1 km/h faster than the latter.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by haljackey

uh...Going nearly 50% faster?

If you're a good driver you would have obeyed the speed limit or at least be somewhere close to it.

Also why are you in such a rush? What do you have to get to these days? The grocery store?

Please drive safe. Our EMS don't need the preventable car crash victims in the ER right now (or ever).

I'm still pissed about what happened at Whitby last night. That one driver coming back from visiting a friend basically took the grocery truck out.
For me, I'm just doing virtual tours of Lake Superior Shore on Google Streetview now.

Originally Posted by Acajack

While we all appreciate the work truckers do to keep society supplied, don't we all just looooove how one large truck will pull out to the left lane to pass another when the former is maybe going 1 km/h faster than the latter.

That's why 401 gets annoying when there are only 4 lanes......
Well, the same goes for A20 too.
400 and 417, not so much.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by wave46

I'm not sure where you're coming from, but on my various travels on the 401 between Kitchener and Toronto, sustaining more than 120-125 km/h was simply not possible for long stretches.

I'm from Stratford, so my stretch of the 401 is Kitchener to Toronto. Yesterday at 6 pm going eastbound it was free-moving and comparatively sparsely populated. Not too many trucks, either. The two lanes to the right were mostly moving at 130+ km/h.

It barely slowed down between the 427 and Yonge, too. Never seen anything like it before. It felt like we'd been freed from the reigns. My very strong impression from the experience is that people will drive as fast as is feasibly possible from a legal and physical standpoint.

I suppose any potential speed increase on the 400-series highways could be workable if the current "stunt driving" designation remains at 150 km/h, but then again, that would be mostly meaningless, as nobody is driving under 120 km/h anyway. Nothing would really change.

Save, perhaps, for ticketing?

[Innsertnamehere]

That's the plan.

More or less it would reduce the risk of getting a ticket for doing an upper tier speed.

I normally do 125-135ish on a 400 series highway if I can. Thing is that you start to risk a ticket as you pass 125ish, so I often hold back from going much faster than that.

I drove on the 402 in November, shortly after the 110 limit was posted, and did 135 guilt free. Felt goood. you can cover the 100km highway from Michigan to the 401 in about 45 minutes, compared to an hour if you were to do the 100km/h old speed limit.

I imagine what would happen with a 110 limit is you would see less "slow" drivers too. A lot of drivers don't like doing more than 10 or so over the limit, so those drivers would do 120 now instead of 110.

The speed limit increase would then do two things - 1. reduce ticket risk, and 2. increase "high volume" average speed. I've driven back on the 401 from Kingston before doing 105-110 the whole way back because of volume. Perhaps that would be 115-120 with volume if there was a 110 limit.

[Dengler Avenue]

"I've driven back on the 401 from Kingston before doing 105-110 the whole way back because of volume. Perhaps that would be 115-120 with volume if there was a 110 limit."

Unless O.P.P. and MTO are okay with trucks going 110 kph, I don't really see this happening on the 4-lane section of 401.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

"I've driven back on the 401 from Kingston before doing 105-110 the whole way back because of volume. Perhaps that would be 115-120 with volume if there was a 110 limit."

Unless O.P.P. and MTO are okay with trucks going 110 kph, I don't really see this happening on the 4-lane section of 401.

Never mind what the OPP or MTO think about 110 for trucks. It's really up to the trucking companies. Not all set their trucks for 105 now, many keep them to 100 or 101, or even less, for fuel economy reasons. No way would those companies go to 110.

I drive, although I'm more local with very little 401 mileage anymore. I totally get the frustration with getting stuck behind trucks trying to pass each other like that. But just like with many car drivers, ego gets in the way. My company sets our trucks to 101 or 102 and if someone is slowly trying to pass me, I just take my foot off the gas for 10 seconds, let him go by and resume my speed. But when I'm the guy slowly passing, it's frustrating. I'm already one of the slower trucks out there, and if I encounter someone going just a bit slower than me, I really hate slowing down to stay behind that guy. It drives me crazy that someone won't back out of it a touch to let me by. Fortunately between Toronto and London is lots of hills and while my truck isn't fast, it also holds its speed up hills. I go up the 401 westbound west of Milton at the same speed I go on the flat. If I go through Hamilton, I go up the mountain at maybe 98 or 99. So I use those hills to my advantage with other trucks. It's also fortunate that there are at least 3 lanes in each direction on my stretch of the highway (not that I ever would have dared heading over to the third lane in my truck to pass other trucks lol).

[ssiguy]

Must be nice to drive so fast. Even when traffic is relatively light, BCers drive painfully slow.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

That's the plan.

More or less it would reduce the risk of getting a ticket for doing an upper tier speed.

I normally do 125-135ish on a 400 series highway if I can. Thing is that you start to risk a ticket as you pass 125ish, so I often hold back from going much faster than that.

I drove on the 402 in November, shortly after the 110 limit was posted, and did 135 guilt free. Felt goood. you can cover the 100km highway from Michigan to the 401 in about 45 minutes, compared to an hour if you were to do the 100km/h old speed limit.

I imagine what would happen with a 110 limit is you would see less "slow" drivers too. A lot of drivers don't like doing more than 10 or so over the limit, so those drivers would do 120 now instead of 110.

The speed limit increase would then do two things - 1. reduce ticket risk, and 2. increase "high volume" average speed. I've driven back on the 401 from Kingston before doing 105-110 the whole way back because of volume. Perhaps that would be 115-120 with volume if there was a 110 limit.

Now that there are less drivers on the roads, this isn't the time to push your limit. There is still the same number of police out there.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Now that there are less drivers on the roads, this isn't the time to push your limit. There is still the same number of police out there.

That's the truth. I drive around the city all day and I'm thinking "wow, there's so many cops out here", and it's because I don't see all the other traffic the cops usually blend in with. That makes me an easier target lol.

[Airboy]

Drove Edmonton to Lloydminister (Yellowhead) on the Sask boarder. Was quite unnerving to be the only non transport truck for 2.5 hrs.

Plus finding a washroom open was tough.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by Airboy

Drove Edmonton to Lloydminister (Yellowhead) on the Sask boarder. Was quite unnerving to be the only non transport truck for 2.5 hrs.

Plus finding a washroom open was tough.

Did you see more or fewer trucks than usual? Or just the same number of them?

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Did you see more or fewer trucks than usual? Or just the same number of them?

Seems to be the same about, but there are always quite a few on this route. The one to check is the route to Calgary. That's the run up from the states. I did notice more traffic at the west end truck stops.

[sonysnob]

I posted this in the Ontario thread, but I filmed an up to date video of the 401 through Toronto a couple of weeks ago:

• Video Link

[ssiguy]

Thanks for the great drive. Traffic seems very light, when were you driving?