Speeds to be increased to 110 on select Ontario highways, governors remain at 105

Map Source: Ontario

Updated at 6pm*

The Ontario government is raising the speed limit permanently from 100 km/h to 110 km/h on six sections of provincial highways in southern Ontario.

“With road safety top of mind, these sections have been carefully selected based on their ability to accommodate higher speed limits,” said Caroline Mulroney, Minister of Transportation.

Whether the change will increase highway safety or efficiency is “a tough one to call,” says Travis McDougall of Truckers for Safer Highways.

“So long as our trucks are still governed at 105 kilometres per hour, it won’t really make any difference except that now we will be driving slower than the traffic around us,” he says. Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation has not yet indicated whether the governor set point will be raised along with highway speed limits.

(*Updated at 6pm with MTO response: “At this time, there are no changes to the speed limiter program for commercial trucks. We will continue to monitor highway operations at the raised speed limit sections to assess whether additional review of the speed limiter program is needed as a result of the speed limit initiative,” Issues Management Co-ordinator Simi Ikotun told Road Warrior News in an email on March 31st.)

Beginning April 22, 2022, the speed limit will be raised permanently to 110 km/h on the following sections of provincial highways in southern Ontario:

• Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) from Hamilton to St. Catharines (32 km)
• Highway 402 from London to Sarnia (90 km)
• Highway 417 from Ottawa to the Ontario/Quebec Border (102 km)
• Highway 401 from Windsor to Tilbury (approximately 40 km)
• Highway 404 from Newmarket to Woodbine (approximately 16 km)
• Highway 417 from Kanata to Arnprior (approximately 37 km)

In addition to raising the speed limit permanently on sections of highways in southern Ontario, at the same time, the province is also raising the speed limit to 110 km/h on a trial basis on the following sections of provincial highways in Northern Ontario:

• Highway 400 from MacTier to Nobel (approximately 55 km)
• Highway 11 from Emsdale to South River (approximately 45 km)

According to the media release issued by Ontario, the change follows several speed limit pilots and consultations and will align posted speeds with other jurisdictions across Canada.

In September 2019, the government launched an online survey to gather public feedback when the higher speed limit pilots were introduced on certain sections of highways in southern Ontario. Of the 8,300 people that responded to the survey, approximately 80 per cent were supportive of the pilots and 82 per cent stated they support raising speed limits on more sections of 400-series highways.

The Ministry of Transportation has been monitoring all raised speed limit sections for safety and operations, and observations indicate that the sections with a raised speed limit have been operating as expected. Both the operating speeds and collision trends within these sections have remained comparable to other similar highway sections where speed limits remained unchanged at 100 km/h.

Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and British Columbia have posted speed limits of 110 km/h.

There are currently six other provinces in Canada that have set their speed limits in excess of 100 km/h on select segments of certain highways.