TORONTO

Are you itching to drive 130 km/h legally?

The Ontario government is being urged to make honest drivers of most of us and begin raising highway speed maximums up to 130 km/h from the current limit of 100 km/h.

Chris Klimek, of Stop100.ca, said the perfect place to conduct a pilot project on higher speed limits would be the new Highway 407 East extension — a section of which is scheduled to open this year.

In a letter to the Kathleen Wynne government, Klimek says that he has 40,000 supporters for the proposal to raise speed limits to 120-130 km/h on the 400 highway series, including elected officials and a retired OPP officer.

As a pilot project, the government should try out the higher speed limits on the brand new 407 extension, he said.

“After this we would keep pushing for speed limits that do not criminalize safe driving,” Klimek told the Toronto Sun. “Because currently drivers who are doing 110-, 120-, 130-km/h — and they have been doing this for decades — are all considered lawbreakers and violators and this is what we believe is wrong.”

Other jurisdictions have moved to higher speeds on divided, wide highways with no negative impact on safety, he said.

The Ontario government wasn’t revved at the idea.

Bob Nichols, a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, said the top speed allowed on the Hwy 407 East extension, which eventually will stretch from Brock Road in Pickering to Hwy 35/115, will be 100 km/h.

Transportation Ministry officials routinely review polices and practices to determine if they are current with research and “best practices” around the world, Nichols said in an email.

“This includes periodically reviewing Ontario’s speed limits to make sure they are appropriate, taking into account factors such as road design, traffic volumes and collision trends,” Nichols said. “In 2012, speed limits on 400-series highways were reviewed in detail. At that time, the decision was made not to raise speed limits.”

Nichols pointed out that Ontario has one of the strongest road and highway safety records across North America, ranked first or second for the past 13 years.

Klimek said that the province’s strong record of safety proves his point — motorists have been largely ignoring the posted speed limit and travelling safely at between 110-130 km/h for decades on Ontario’s major highways.

In B.C., where the speed limit was raised to 120 km/h on some highways, the Transportation Minister reported that the majority of drivers who had been doing 127 km/h prior to the change were now doing 126 km/h.

”Our highways are top quality world class highways and they have been designed for 120 km/h, not for 90 or 100,” Klimek said. “When Ontario drivers see 100 km/h posted on a beautiful seven-, eight-lane highway that doesn’t even have a turn or a curve, for example, for 10 km, they instinctively know that this painted number has nothing to do with safety. Every engineer will agree that this number is a political number that has no bearing in safety.”

Klimek has been advocating for higher speed limits on the 400 highway series since 2011, but says Ontario transportation officials appear unwilling to face the facts.

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The B.C. government moved in 2014 to raise some of their speed limits to 120 km/h after a review of safety and speeds on rural highways.

That review concluded that:

- Some 85% of drivers were driving in excess of the posted speed limits

- Serious crashes are trending downward across the province

- The public showed significant support for raising some speed limits

- Raising the speed limit to what people actually drive would increase compliance

- Raising the speed limit would lower the speed differential between vehicles, reducing conflicts between vehicles

The B.C. government announced in 2014 that it would:

- Adjust the speed limit on 35 sections of highway covering 1,300 kms

- Introduce new maximum speed of 120 km/h on some sections of divided multi-lane highways

- Pilot variable speed limits in some areas

- One year later, government says average motorists were not driving any faster

(Source: B.C. government Rural Highway Safety and Speed Review, 2014)