Speed limits increase on some Ontario highways, including parts of 401

Speed limits on some Ontario highways increased on Friday, including large portions of the 401.

Beginning on July 12, speed limits will be permanently raised 10 kilometres per hour to 110 km/h on 10 roadways in northern and southern Ontario.

“Much of Ontario’s highway network was originally designed to safely accommodate speed limits of 110 km/h and data from our changes in 2022 show they do just that,” Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria said in a statement on April 24.

“These evidence-based increases are a common-sense change to make life more convenient for Ontario drivers while bringing our highway speed limits in line with other Canadian provinces.”

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The increases affect 13 kilometres on the 406 from Thorold to Welland in Niagara Region to as much as a 107-kilometre stretch of Highway 401 to the border between Quebec and Ontario.

The roadways that will have new speed limits Friday include:

• Highway 401, Tilbury, extending the existing 110 km/h zone farther east by seven kilometres
• Highway 401 from Highway 35/115 to Cobourg (around 35 km affected)
• Highway 401 from Colborne to Belleville (around 44 km affected)
• Highway 401 from Belleville to Kingston (around 66 km affected)
• Highway 401 from Highway 16 to the Quebec boundary (around 107 km affected)
• Highway 403 from Woodstock to Brantford (around 26 km affected)
• Highway 403 from Brantford to Hamilton (around 14.5 km affected)
• Highway 406 from Thorold to Welland (around 13 km affected)
• Highway 416 from Hwy 401 to Ottawa (around 70 km affected)
• Highway 69 from Sudbury to French River (around 60 km affected)

The speed changes come after consultations and a pilot program launched in 2019 explored opportunities to safely increase speed limits on select Ontario highways.

It follows increases on six sections of provincially controlled highways in southern Ontario and two sections in northern Ontario on a two-year trial.