Highway 417 speed limits increase to 110 km/h, but advocate says it's not enough
Tuesday's announcement did not include a number of 400-series highways, including Highway 416, which stretches from Ottawa to Highway 401 just east of Prescott.
Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Mar 30, 2022 • 1 hour ago • 3 minute read
Speed limits will be permanently increased to 110 km/hr on some stretches of highway, including Highway 417 from Arnprior to Ottawa and from Ottawa east to the Ontario-Quebec border.
The decision to increase speed limits on some four-lane divided highways was made after Ontario ran a two-year pilot project. The new speed limit will now align with speed limits in other jurisdictions across Canada.
“Our government continues to find new ways to make life easier and more convenient for families and businesses that depend on highways to get where they need to go,” Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney said in a statement on Tuesday.
“With road safety top of mind, these sections have been carefully selected based on their ability to accommodate higher speed limits.”
Chris Klimek, the founder of Stop100.ca, which has advocated for higher speed limits on some highways, was disappointed on two fronts. Klimek wanted to see the speed limits increased even more. He also wanted the limits to be increased on more four-lane divided highways.
“The government did not go far enough,” Klimek said. “We have state-of-the-art highways. It’s a travesty we’re not letting people use the highways the way they have been intended to be used.”
Klimek has been calling on for speed limits to be increased to 120 km/h on all metropolitan 400-series highways — with the exception of hazardous stretches, such as sharp turns — as well as limits of 130 km/h on all 400-series highways outside metropolitan areas.
He points out that Tuesday’s announcement did not include a number of 400-series highways, including Highway 416, which stretches from Ottawa to Highway 401 just east of Prescott.
Klimek argues that most people drive at the speed they feel safe and comfortable with, which is typically about 120 km/h on well-designed four-lane highways. Just because the speed limit has been increased to 110 km/h does not means that people will start driving at 140 km/h, he said.
“This was supposed to allow drivers to commute the way highways were designed to be used. Engineers designed these highways to be perfectly safe to drive at 120.”
Lower speed limits force drivers to look over their shoulders for police, he said.
“Why should safe drivers be considered lawbreakers? This has failed to address that. I’m stressed out on the highway because i feel I have been turned into a lawbreaker.”
A provincial pilot project to increase speeds to 110 km/h was announced in March 2020. It included increasing speed limits on three sections of 400-series highway, including a 102-kilometre stretch of Highway 417 from Gloucester east to the Ontario-Quebec border.
At the time, six provinces had posted speeds of 110 km/h or higher on certain highways. In British Columbia, speed limit increases stirred up controversy after the release of a 2018 University of British Columbia study found the number of fatal crashes had doubled on stretches where the speed limit was raised to 120 km/h in 2014.
A survey of more 8,300 Ontario residents in September 2019 found that 80 per cent supported the pilot project and 82 per cent supported an increase to speed limits on more sections of 400-series highways.
Pierre Leroux is the mayor of Russell Township, where many commuters use a stretch of Highway 417 that was part of the province’s pilot project.
Leroux said he had heard nothing either good or bad about increasing the speed limit by 10 kilometres per hour.
“I have never heard any complaints about speeding. I think we have to consider that vehicles are better equipped to handle higher speeds. It depends on what people feel comfortable with,” he said.
“I think that telecommuting has had a bigger impact than increasing the speed limit.”
Higher speeds are legal in about 60 countries and U.S. states, Klimek said.
“Why are we being criminalized for driving like people in Austria or Norway?” said Klimek, who has lived in Europe and often drives in the United States.
“They didn’t look at scientific global data.”
As of April 22, the speed limit will be raised permanently on the following sections of highway in Ontario:
• a 102-kilometre stretch of Highway 417 from Ottawa to the Ontario/Quebec border
• a 37-kilometre stretch from Highway 417 from Kanata to Arnprior
• a 32-kilometre stretch of Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) from Hamilton to St. Catharines
• a 90-kilometre stretch of Highway 402 from London to Sarn
• a 40-kilometre stretch of Highway 401 from Windsor to Tilbury
• a 16-kilometre stretch of Highway 404 from Newmarket to Woodbine
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...its-not-enough
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