Ontario Raising Speed Limits to 110 km/h on Some Highway Segments

Vehicles drive on Highway 401 westbound in Kingston, Ont., on Jan. 11, 2019. (Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press)

Ontario will soon announce a permanent increase of speed limits on six sections of provincial highways to 110 kilometres per hour.

As part of the province’s 2019 pilot project to increase the allowable speed on certain highway segments in the province, the new speed limits will be permanently changed as of April 22, according to The Canadian Press.

Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney is set to make the announcement later in the day on March 29 and a livestream will be available on the Transport Ministry’s Twitter page. Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens will also be joining the press conference. 

The new speed limits will be applied to the Queen Elizabeth Way from Hamilton to St. Catharines, Highway 402 from London to Sarnia, Highway 417 from Ottawa to the Quebec border and from the Kanata area to Arnprior, Highway 401 from Windsor to Tilbury, and Highway 404 from Newmarket to Woodbine. 

Mulroney said in a statement that those sections of highways were selected based on their capacity to accommodate higher speeds. 

Ontario is also announcing two new areas to conduct a 110 kph limit on a trial basis: Highway 400 from MacTier to Nobel, and Highway 11 from Emsdale to South River. 

The Ontario government said in 2020 that 80 percent of people who responded to a survey about the pilot project were supportive of the increases. 

The government determined that the six sections of highway with 110 km/h speed limits from 2019 have comparable speed and collision patterns to highway sections with speed limits of 100 km/h. 

Six other provinces in Canada have speed limits of over 100 km/h on certain parts of the highways.

The Canadian Press contributed to this article