Ontario Group Wants Us Driving Faster On Our Highways – They Call It A ‘Minor Risk’. What Do You Think?

This image came from Stop 100

A Foreword by Doug Draper

When I began receiving media releases from this group – calling itself Stop100 – a year or so ago, I thought it was some sort of spoof. But apparently not.

This Oshawa-based citizens body, which has received some publicity for its cause in The Toronto Sun and other mainstream publications, is pushing the Ontario Ministry of Transportation to have the speed limits on the province’s 400-series highways from 100 to 120 to 130 kilometres per hour (and that is somewhere between 75 and 80 miles per hour for you Americans out there).

Now I always thought a couple of things about the speeds we drive on our highways, but perhaps I’ve been sorely misinformed.

First, there were numerous reports and studies released during the oil shortage crisis of the late 1970s (the one that helped blow away the presidency of Jimmy Carter) that said that reducing speeds on highways to about 80 kilometers or 55 miles per hour would reduce the overall consumption of gasoline on this continent significant. So Canada joined the United States in reducing highway speeds up to the time Bill Clinton was president and decided, with more than a little pressure from groups that may have been not so different from Stop 100, that we’d moved beyond any oil shortage situation and could go back to the higher speeds. Interestingly enough, Al Gore, now one of the world’s great crusaders for fighting climate change, was Clinton’s vice president at the time and never uttered a peep.

Second, there have been all kinds of studies that speed kills. But Stop 100, in the submission you can read below from this group, argues that speed is a “minor” factor in fatal traffic accidents. The group points out that in 2009, speed was only a factor in 6.7 per cent of the deaths on our province’s highways. I guess I wonder if this group would be prepared to hold a special meeting in front of the families of the 6.7 per cent and make their case for increasing speed limits on Ontario’s 400-series highways to them.

The point is this. Any of us who get on Highway 401 or a strip of the QEW between Grimsby and Toronto, know that 100 kilometres per hour already means 120 or 130 to many drivers, and you either go with the flow and get up to that speed or get out of there. Now if we increase the speeds to 120 or 130, what will that mean? Will we then be accelerating to 150 or more? And what the fig is the hurry? Are you afraid you won’t get to your job or the shopping centre on time?

Some may argue that the Ontario Provincial Police should be out there policing speeds on these highways. But where are they now? I would rather drive the full, more than 300 mile distance of the New York State Thruway between Buffalo and the Massachusetts border, than drive between Niagara and Toronto on the QEW. The NYS Thruway is safe and well patrolled by the state police. The QEW and 401 are not.  I can’t remember the last time I saw a car or truck pulled over by the OPP, but you can pass that kind of scene on the NYS Thruway ever 30 or 40 miles. In the land where automobile traffic is king, they actually mean business down there on policing speed limits.

But maybe I have it all wrong. Why not up the speed limits on our highways in Ontario. If nothing else except getting some people to those precious jobs in and around Bay Street a little faster, maybe it can function as another form of population control.

Let us know what you think and here is the latest release from Stop 100 below.

Stop100.ca gains public support

Oshawa – Oshawa-based group stop100.ca, with over 3000 identified supporters, is renewing its push to increase the speed limit on Ontario’s 400-series highways to 120 km/h and to 130 km/h on segments with higher safety standards (such as highway 401 Express and 407 ETR) and on all 400-series highways outside of the metropolitan areas.

“I set out on the mission to free the 400-series drivers from the daily stress, fines, demerit points and increased insurance rates; all for simply driving at reasonable highway speeds.” said Chris Klimek, founder of the group. “The political, ‘energy crisis’ speed limit from 1976 (reduced from 112 km/h), has been in place for too long. I want to inform the Honourable Minister Bob Chiarelli of the MTO that the days of “speed kills” propaganda in this Province are over and we will continue to represent the interests and the strong wills of the millions of Ontario 400-series’ drivers until the mission is accomplished.”

The data collected by the Ministry of Transportation is clear and it undeniably proves that speed on divided highways (safest type of roads) is a minor factor in fatal collisions. “That’s simply due to the fact that divided freeways are designed to handle speed,” Klimek adds.

According to the annual Ontario Road Safety Report (ORSAR), speeding was attributed to 6.7% of all fatal collisions in 2009. 34 out of 564 people, or 6%, died on Ontario’s fastest roads which are the 400-series provincial highways. 93% of Ontario fatalities in 2009 occurred on much slower roads for reasons unrelated to speed.

Canadian data confirms the provincial statistics – controlled access freeways carry the least fatalities of any types of roads known despite much higher operating speeds.

We are pleading with the Ontario Provincial Police to join our call for reasonable and scientific speed limits on the 400-series highways to replace the current arbitrary speed limit which is not based on engineering principles or science.

“I count on your intelligence and openness to facts,” Klimek adds. 120 km/h and 130 km/h are legally permitted speeds in over 60 jurisdictions worldwide. There are no reasons to treat Ontario drivers differently and punish their safe and prudent driving which unjustly removes discretionary spending money from Ontario families for no wrongdoing.

We are releasing several promotional posters to spread awareness of speed limit facts and to force the government to act. We are launching aggressive Facebook and email campaigns to reach out to more citizens of our Province. Please see www.stop100.ca/drive.

Attached, please find our recent letter to the Members of Provincial Parliament as well as a recent newspaper article which addresses police presence on our roads.

Please visit www.stop100.ca for more information.

(Once again, Niagara At Large invites all those who dare to share their real first and last names with us to wade in on this post in the comment space below.)