No need for more speed

Province to raise speed limit on some highways, April 25

I admit to speeding. I cruise along the 400 highway series at approximately 20 km/h above the speed limit when safe and I am usually in the middle lane, where a police car passes me by without batting an eye. So will this 10 km/hr increase now mean I can travel at 130 km/h without worry? That’s a scary thought with drivers who are going well over the limit already.

Having just come back from Australia, where drivers have been retrained over the past couple of decades to stick to the speed limits due to policing, radars and cameras, I am bothered by this vote grab gimmick by Premier Doug Ford. Australia is much more serious about keeping drivers safe. Driving with no seatbelt for the driver or passenger is a cost of $1,161, plus four points; in Ontario it is $200, plus three points. Going 20 km/h over the speed limit is $646, plus points; in Ontario it is $75, plus three points. The fine for using a cellphone is $1161, plus four demerit points; in Ontario it is $615, plus three points. In Ontario, we can accumulate 15 points over two years. In Australia the accumulation period is over three years and when it reaches 12 points, you are toast.

Go ahead and buy more votes by playing with drivers’ lives, Premier Ford.

Matthew Marosszeky, Aurora, Ont.

Gee, thanks, Premier Ford, for yet another policy change no one asked for, to serve as a distraction from the fiasco that has become the norm in our once beautiful province. You are very adept at ignoring the true needs of Ontarians (affordable housing, access to family doctors and timely health- and home-care services, climate change). Pam Tomasevic, Mississauga