Ontario is raising speed limits, but are higher speed limits safer?

Traffic on Highway 401 in Toronto passes under a COVID-19 sign on Monday April 6, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

Toronto — Ontario announced on Tuesday that the province would be permanently setting speed limits on some divided highways at 110 kilometres per hour, following similar moves made by other provinces.

Advocates of higher speed limits say these moves are a step in the right direction, arguing that a highway speed limit that is too low could make the roads more dangerous.

Chris Klimek is the founder of Stop100.ca, a group that has been calling on Ontario to raise highway speed limits. While he says the move is what Ontario should've done "at the very least," he says he's disappointed that only some highways are getting speed limit increases. Notably, provincial highways around Toronto are being excluded from this measure.

In most provinces, the highest speed limits on divided highways have been set at 110 km/h. Speed limits in Newfoundland and Quebec remain at 100 km/h while in B.C., some stretches have speed limits of up to 120 km/h. The territories and P.E.I. do not have any divided highways.

"What we've been saying for the last eight years now is that the speed limit has no effect on fatality rates, because it really has no effect on driving speeds," Klimek said, adding that most drivers will drive at the speed that they are most comfortable with, regardless of what the posted speed limit is.

"If the speed limit is 100 kilometers an hour, people will choose to drive 110, 120 or 130 an hour and this is what we see all the time every single day," he said.

After Saskatchewan raised speed limits on four-lane divided highways in rural areas from 100 km/h to 110 km/h in 2003, a study from the province's ministry of highways found that average driver speeds only saw a "minimal increase."

Klimek argues that having too low of a speed limit creates more variation in speeds among drivers, as most drivers will have to change lanes more often to avoid drivers who choose to adhere to the 100 km/h maximum. He says speed limits should be set at the 85th percentile speed – the speed at which 85 per cent of drivers are at or below.

"The vast majority of drivers will be slamming on the brakes and passing on the left, passing on the right. That actually causes a much more dangerous situation," he said.

Having too much variation in speeds among drivers was an issue on a Massachusetts highway that had a high rate of collisions, according to a study commissioned by the state's highway agency. In order to reduce accidents, the study recommended increasing the speed limit from 55 miles per hour (88 km/h) to 65 mph (104 km/h).

Highway speed limits around the world also tend to be much higher than in Canada. Most U.S. states have set their highway speed limits at around 70 to 75 mph, or 112 to 120 km/h, but one highway in Texas has a speed limit of 85 mph (137 km/h). In Europe, most expressways have speed limits of around 120 to 130 km/h – although much of the German autobahn has no speed limit.

Other studies have suggested that higher speed limits could result in more injuries and collisions. After B.C. raised the speed limit up to 120 km/h on several highways in 2014, University of British Columbia researchers published a study in 2018 that found that the number of fatal crashes doubled on roads with higher speed limits. The roads with higher speed limits also saw a 43-per-cent increase in auto insurance claims and a 30-per-cent increase in claims due injuries from crashes.

After the study was published, the B.C. government lowered speed limits on some of the affected highways. However, Klimek says the raw data in the 2018 study points out that the average driver speeds on these roads saw little to no change.

"Driving speeds did not actually increase and there's evidence in in that very report," he said.

Other provinces may soon be raising their speed limits too. Last year, an Alberta MLA introduced a private member's bill that would increase speed limits to 120 km/h on provincial freeways. In 2018, the opposition Parti Quebecois also campaigned on raising speed limits to 120 km/h for some Quebec Autoroutes.