Speed limits to increase on some Ontario highways as of Friday

The speed limit is going up on some more stretches of Highway 401 and parts of other highways in Ontario starting this Friday.

The province says the speed limit will go from 100 kilometres per hour to 110 in those areas.

The change applies to 10 sections of provincial highways, including the 401 from Colborne to Belleville and from Belleville to Kingston, as well as Highway 403 from Woodstock to Brantford and from Brantford to Hamilton.

In some areas, the higher limit will come into effect later this year.

“Most of Ontario’s highways were originally designed to safely accommodate speed limits of 110 km/h and the data from our changes in 2022 shows they do just that,” Prabmeet Sarkaria, Minister of Transportation, said in an April press release. “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.”

In 2022, the government permanently increased the speed limit on six sections of provincial highways in southern Ontario as well as two sections in northern Ontario on a two-year trial basis.