Now's the time to reform our speed laws

This is surely the time for the McGuinty Liberals to take bold actions that will ultimately be seen as appropriate. One such action is reform of the existing policy and relevant legislation concerning speed limits on our rural highways and byways.

Unfortunately, all we've observed in recent years is a few transportation ministers suggesting that maybe, perhaps (just possibly) they will have a look at increasing the present 100 km/h limit on the 400 series roadways to 110 or 120. Invariably, such musings bring an outcry that lives would be placed in greater jeopardy, and raising the limit would only mean traffic would go that much faster.

So instead of looking at any type of reform, the government has come up with new draconian measures to deal with motorists found going more than 50 km/h over the posted speed limit. The measures include impounding the vehicles and issuing immediate licence suspensions.

In the few weeks the new law has been in force literally hundreds of these "street racing" penalties have been imposed (several each week in Caledon), and there have been some calls for the crackdown to be extended to anyone caught going 30 km/h above the legal maximum.

In some jurisdictions that would make a lot of sense, since it's almost unthinkable that anyone would drive more than 50 km/above a modern speed limit that's based on an "85 percentile" monitoring of actual speeds.

But in Ontario, virtually every speed limit to be found isn't based on any percentile and has nothing to do with the quality of the roadway or cogent safety considerations. They're all political, representing what provincial and local politicians see as putting themselves in a good light.

This politicization became rampant about 30 years ago, when then premier Bill Davis, decided to go one better than the U.S. Congress, which had imposed a nationwide maximum of 55 miles an hour (roughly 90 km/h) in place of the existing limits, which tended to be highest in the western states and lowest in the northeast. In Ontario, the freeway limit was cut from 70 to 60 m.p.h. and the top legal speed on all other highways was cut from 60 to 50 m.p.h., the argument being that slower-moving traffic would consume less gasoline.

At the local level politicians have been going much further, reducing the limits on paved rural roadways to 70, 60, 50 and in at least one instance 40 km/h, usually in response to complaints from residents that the roads are being used by too many commuters and aren't safe spots for children (they were never designed to be!).

One classic illustration is found in Caledon. St. Andrew's Road is now all paved, but the speed limit has been cut from 80 to either 60 or 70, yet the limit is still 80 km/h when you cross Olde Base Line Road and as Bramalea Road the surface becomes both narrower and rougher.

Today, municipal roadways in Ontario that had no need for speed-limit signs because the gravel surfaces seldom permitted speeds above 80 km/h are being given urban speed limits when they get smooth asphalt surfaces. Anyone caught driving 110 km/h on such a roadway, which in 1970 might well have a posted 60 limit (100 km/h) risks loss of licence and a $2,000 fine!

As we see it, the single biggest reason for highway fatalities in Ontario lies in the fact that virtually everyone breaks the current speed laws. Were there ever to be an 85 percentile test on our highways, the research would show that the average speeds now being driven are 120 on the freeways and 100 on the ordinary highways.

The research would also undoubtedly establish that there is far too much unsafe passing - perhaps the single most frequent cause of fatalities on two-lane highways.

In our submission, the safest speed at any time is that being driven by most of the traffic, and the real challenge is to find some means of getting everyone to "go with the flow."

A strong argument could be made for either 110 or 120 km/h as the freeway limit in rural areas, with ordinary highways being posted at 80, 90 or 100 km/h, depending on their condition. Absent special circumstances, with zero tolerance in place, no paved rural road should have a limit below 80.