Toronto, Ontario — Beginning July 12th, the Ontario government will raise the speed limit on ten sections of provincial highways in northern and southern Ont.
With these changes, the speed limit will permanently increase from 100 km/h to 110 km/h on five sections of Hwy. 401, two sections of Hwy. 403, as well as sections of Hwy. 406, 416 and 69.
These changes come two years following the increase of speeds on six sections of provincial highways in 2022.
In a recent statement, Prabmeet Sarkaria, Minister of Transportation, said that “most of Ontario’s highways were originally designed to safely accommodate speed limits of 110 km/h and the data from our changes in 2022 shows they do just that. These evidence-based increases are a common-sense change to make life more convenient for Ontario drivers while bringing our highway speed limits in line with other Canadian provinces.”
The current highway sections to receive a speed increase were also chosen based on their ability to safely accommodate higher speed limits.
In 2019, the government originally began consultations and a pilot program to increase speed limits on select Ont. highways.
Here, more than 8,300 people responded to an online survey and 80 percent were in support of the project, while 82 percent were in support of raising the speed limits on more of the 400-series highways.
Accordingly, in response to this original pilot project, province police told CTV News London that “there has been no significant change in number of collisions or charges on Hwy. 402 since the limit increases in the trial period.”
However, concern over increased collisions still exists as in 2014, British Columbia raised the speed limit on a 1,300 km stretch of highway from 110 km/h to 120 km/h and subsequently, the number of fatal collisions increased by more than 20 percent.
This increase was largely equated to the fact that at higher speeds, any mistakes a driver makes have more serious consequences.
Despite these most recent changes, penalties for stunt driving, including immediate license suspension, vehicle impoundment, fines and jail, will remain in effect at 150 km/h.
Moreover, on highway sections where speed limits have been raised, penalties for stunt driving will be enforced when speeds exceed limits by 40 km/h.
These changes thus bring Ontario in line with other provinces such as Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan.
