Pilot project to test increased speed limits on Highway 417

The Ontario government will test raising the speed limit to 110 km/h on Highway 417 from Anderson Road to the Quebec border, it announced Friday morning.

The eastern Ontario stretch is one of three pilot sites starting in mid-September; the others are Highway 402 from London to Sarnia and the Queen Elizabeth Way from St. Catharines to Hamilton.

“Safety is the government’s number one priority and each pilot location was carefully chosen based on a number of factors, including its ability to accommodate higher speed limits,” Transportation Minister Jeff Yurek said in a news release.

Meanwhile, the government will launch provincewide consultations within weeks on “how to safely increase highway speeds to align with other provinces and how people currently drive.

“Results from the pilot and all feedback received during consultations will be carefully considered as a part of the final decision-making process,” Yurek said.

“We’re also working with our road safety and enforcement partners.”

The plan is to start the higher limit one kilometre east of the Anderson interchange (Ottawa Road 27) and end it one kilometre west of the provincial border. Street-racing or stunt-driving penalties will continue to begin at 150 km/h and the government promised more signage and safety messaging.

Brian Patterson, president and CEO of the Ontario Safety League, and Elliott Silverstein, of CAA South Central Ontario, offered statements in support in the news release.

“The Ontario Safety League traditionally bases their position on science and the science tells us that although excessive speed is a factor in many crashes, under normal driving conditions and with reasonable driving attention it would have virtually no impact,” Patterson said.

“It is important that drivers pay particular attention to weather and road conditions and adjust accordingly regardless of the posted speed limit,” Silverstein said. “A pilot program is an ideal way to gradually explore the subject of raising speed limits and determine the impact on road safety.”

Six Canadian provinces have posted speed limits of 110 km/h or higher and the government said that “Ontario’s highways are among the safest in North America, where we’ve ranked the lowest or second lowest in fatality rates among all jurisdictions for 18 consecutive years.”