Ontario considers lowering city speed limits

WATCH: The new speed limits could be put in place to increase pedestrian safety. Mark McAllister reports.

TORONTO – Queen’s Park is looking at lowering speed limits in Ontario cities and towns to increase public safety.

A report in the Toronto Star says the province will begin a year-long “comprehensive consultation” process with municipalities across the province to discuss the changes.

The default speed on city streets is 50 kilometres per hour and the government is considering knocking it down to 40 kilometres per hour.

A source told The Star the initiative was spurred on by concerns raised by mayors and civic councillors.

In Toronto, city transportation officials say they’ve had conversations with the province on the matter last fall but it ended up going nowhere.

“What the province has offered to us, a conversation had started last fall, was looking at the opportunity to delegate the authority to lower the speed limit to municipalities,” said Toronto’s general manager of transportation services Steve Buckley.

“We’ll let it play out at the provincial level. It’s something we are monitoring.”

Buckley says there’s support from city councillors and the public to have the speed limit lowered on local roads but not on main arteries.

“Research has shown that lower speed limits tend to result in reduced fatalities,” he said. “Now with that said, we want to look at where the fatalities are occurring. Are they occurring on major roads or minor roads?”

The consultations with municipal officials will include workshops, questionnaires and webinars to take place this spring.

According to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, penalties and fines for speeding are as follows:

• speeding at 50 km/h over the limit will result in suspension of licence and your vehicle impounded

Penalties for street racing, stunt driving and driving 50 km/h or over the speed limit:

Pre-conviction – Immediate 7-day licence suspension and 7-day vehicle impoundment

Upon conviction – $2,000 to $10,000 fine, 6 demerit points, up to 6 months jail, up to 2 years licence suspension for a first conviction

Second offence – Driver licence suspension up to 10 years within 10 years of first conviction

The following demerit point penalties are assigned to a driver convicted of a speed-related offence. Remember, if you collect enough demerit points, you can lose your driver’s licence.

• 3 points for exceeding the speed limit by 16 to 29 km/h
• 4 points for exceeding the speed limit by 30 to 49 km/h
• 6 points for exceeding the speed limit by 50 km/h or more