Bell: 120 km/h speed limit on Alberta divided roads — first test drive next month The Alberta government will test out a 120 km/h speed limit on a stretch of one divided highway starting next month |
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Bell: 120 km/h speed limit on Alberta divided roads — first test drive next month
The Alberta government will test out a 120 km/h speed limit on a stretch of one divided highway starting next month
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The Alberta government is real serious about upping the speed limits on Alberta’s divided highways to 120 km/h.
We are talking pavement like Highway 2, the Calgary to Edmonton route, but not on Deerfoot Trail.
Highway 1, the Trans-Canada Highway. Highway 16, the Yellowhead.
Highway 63 to Fort McMurray. Highway 43 to Grande Prairie.
Highway 4 to Coutts and the U.S. Yes, people still do travel to the U.S.
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When the weather warms up and the snow leaves and the winter tires come off and spring is in the air the 120-km/h speed limit will be tested out on a stretch of Highway 2, south of Leduc, through the summer and into this fall.
Upon hearing the news, one Calgary driver pleaded: “Why not test the new speed limit close to Calgary?”
Other drivers using divided highways other than Highway 2, including in more remote areas, want their chance to give the 120-km/h speed limit a go.
The government of Premier Danielle Smith is treading carefully.
If this tryout proves to be a success we could see 120 km/h not just on Highway 2 but on other divided highways. That’s the goal.
As well as increasing the speed limit from 110 km/h to 120 km/h, the government also wants a law involving trucks in the future.
If there are three or more lanes on a divided highway with everyone going in the same direction, trucks would not be allowed in the far left lane.
In a survey by the Smith government, almost everyone agrees on the truck issue and almost seven in 10 Albertans agree with a speed limit increase on divided highways.
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Devin Dreeshen, Smith’s point man on pavement, tells us once again how the divided highways are designed for 120 km/h.
During the tryout of the speed limit increase, the Alberta government will be watching closely how drivers behave and whether there is a big change in attitude.
“Are they treating the road like an Autobahn where they think they can go at unlimited speeds, that type of data is what we’ll be collecting.”
What has been the reaction so far to this plan to test out a higher speed limit?
Dreeshen says the biggest surprise has come from people who are not driving the Highway 2 corridor from Calgary to Edmonton.
It’s from those who might be driving to Grande Prairie or up to Fort McMurray.
“We have such big beautiful divided highways with huge big ditches and right-of-ways. They naturally want to go faster on them and ask us: Can we have our speed limits go to 120 km/h?”
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The transportation minister does point out when he hears from rural Albertans who most often drive the divided highways, “they understand going 120 km/h is extremely safe.”
Dreeshen points out how the Calgary ring road has saved many city drivers a lot of time, the speed limit hike is something “for rural Albertans to cut down on their commutes.”
To those who believe a 120-km/h speed limit will turn a divided highway into a Highway to Hell, Dreeshen points to Montana, where the speed limit is even higher.
Dreeshen is planning on checking in with other places having a higher speed limit to find out what their experience has been.
He adds he trusts Albertans to be responsible and has a word for some of his critics.
“Don’t drive too slow. If you drive too slow on a highway we have laws where you can get ticketed for going too slow.”
While the Alberta highwayman is talking transportation, couldn’t help asking about Calgary’s Green Line LRT.
Long-time Calgarians will recall when Nenshi, mayor of Calgary at the time, took the dollars from a provincial tax break intended for Calgarians to kickstart a hallucination of a Green Line expected to cost a few billion bucks going from the far north of the city to the deep southeast.
Dreeshen, who is also Smith’s main man on trains, quite rightly sees Nenshi’s vision as “fiction” and “make believe.”
Calgary city hall and the province are having a hard enough time getting a Green Line to go from Shepard to the future event centre and then eventually into the downtown.
“His dream became a nightmare,” says Dreeshen, trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again while insisting there will be no budget-busting tunnelling to get the train downtown.
“What Nenshi promised never ever could have come to pass and been real.”
By the way, in the very latest hot-off-the-press poll, this new one from Leger, Smith and the UCP are up 12 points on Nenshi and the NDP.
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