So, it's official!
110 km/h can now be seen on
3 Ontario highway segments! 2 of these 3 are connections between the US border and the Toronto area, so it shouldn't be too challenging for many of us in the Eastern US to see 110 km/h in action!
I got to drive what is IMO by far most interesting of the 3 (that being the QEW between St. Catharines and Hamilton). It's the only six-lane / jersey barrier style highway of the bunch, and it's also the only one with recurring congestion issues.
My hot take is that this limit increase is going to single-handedly eliminate the weekend congestion on this stretch of highway.
Traffic already moves right along; the left lane often moves at 140 km/h or better. The OPP will still suspend your licence if you exceed 150 km/h; that law isn't changing. So basically, the upper bound of traffic speeds remains unchanged, while the lower bound goes up by 10 km/h. And
that is what will work wonders for the traffic flow. You'll have the left lane moving along just that much better, so there's less braking, and the right lane will be moving along better too, so it's more viable as a passing lane if there's slow drivers in the middle and on the left.
All told, it just got a lot easier to cruise on that highway segment, and I can't wait to see what happens next summer when the real tourist traffic heats up! This is now the nearest highway to me with a limit higher than 65 mph, which I find pretty crazy. It also probably
owns almost every other freeway in the Americas in terms of average traffic speeds; wouldn't surprise me one bit if the average speed is north of 85 mph (at least when there's not congestion). Hopefully New York will see what's going on west of the border, take the cue, and bump their limits up to 70 or 75 mph!