Province to raise speed limit on some highways

Changes to come later this year

This article was written by Rob Ferguson and was published in the Toronto Star on April 25, 2024.

Starting this summer, drivers can push the pedal closer to the metal as Ontario raises speed limits on 10 more sections of major highways.

Maximum speeds will rise to 110 km/h from 100 km/h on portions of 400-series highways and on Highway 69 south of Sudbury, Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said Wednesday.

The changes on Highways 401, 403, 406 and 416 begin July 12 and follow a similar move involving six sections of highways two years ago, in addition to pilot projects to test the slightly higher speed limit.

“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,” Sarkaria said.

Some of the changes do not take effect until later in the year. The new speed limits will be marked with signs.

Many drivers already cruise along the highways at speeds of 110 km/h or higher as traffic permits, making the change more of a formality.

It had been widely expected that increased speed limits would be adopted along more stretches of highways, which Sarkaria said will bring Ontario closer in line with other provinces.

Green MPP Aislinn Clancy (Kitchener Centre) said raising speed limits is part of Premier Doug Ford’s “sprawl agenda” that includes building Highway 413 from Milton to Highway 400 and the Bradford Bypass linking Highway 400 to Highway 404.

“I don’t think a change in speed limits is really going to change gridlock,” she told reporters.

The speed-limit changes on Highway 401 are mostly outside the GTA, where heavy traffic is the norm.

Those areas are at Tilbury, extending the existing 110 km/h zone east toward Chatham by seven kilometres; from the Highway 35/115 interchange east of Oshawa to Cobourg (35 km); from Colborne to Belleville (44 km); from Belleville to Kingston (66 km); from Highway 16 to Quebec boundary (107 km).

On Highway 403: from Woodstock to Brantford (26 km); Brantford to Hamilton (14.5 km).

On Highway 406 from Thorold to Welland (13 km), Highway 416 from the 401 to Ottawa (70 km), and Highway 69 from Sudbury to the French River (60 km).

Author: Ray Nakano

Ray is a retired, third generation Japanese Canadian born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. He resides in Toronto where he worked for the Ontario Government for 28 years. Ray was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2011 and practises in the Plum Village tradition, supporting sanghas in their mindfulness practice. Ray is very concerned about our climate crisis. He has been actively involved with the ClimateFast group (https://climatefast.ca) for the past 5 years. He works to bring awareness of our climate crisis to others and motivate them to take action. He has created the myclimatechange.home.blog website, for tracking climate-related news articles, reports, and organizations. He has created mobilizecanada.ca to focus on what you can do to address the climate crisis. He is always looking for opportunities to reach out to communities, politicians, and governments to communicate about our climate crisis and what we need to do. He says: “Our world is in dire straits. We have to bend the curve on our heat-trapping pollutants in the next few years if we hope to avoid the most serious impacts of human-caused global warming. Doing nothing is not an option. We must do everything we can to create a livable future for our children, our grandchildren, and all future generations.”