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Lorne Gunter: Useless for Alberta to turn highway speed limit increase into tiny pilot project

Most divided highways in Alberta were designed for speeds of 140 km/h or higher.

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Provincial Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen, when announcing the UCP’s promised higher speed limits on divided highways last week, revealed that rather than all four- and six-lane highways in Alberta going to 120 km/h (from 110 km/h), just a tiny 22-km stretch south of Leduc will make the change this summer. The province wants to study the idea to death first before extending the limit to the rest of province’s freeway system.

So rather than approximately 2,300 km of divided highway adopting the new, higher limit, less than one per cent of the total will.

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Why do something potentially controversial now when you can call for a pilot project and a study. That way you should be able put off the controversy until next year, or even later?

The Alberta government has, since it first announced the change, defended it by saying there is little evidence from highways around the world that higher speed limits cause significant more serious collisions provided the speed limit does not exceed the level the highway was engineered for.

Most divided highways in Alberta were designed for speeds of 140 km/h or higher. Since the 120 km/h limit isn’t taxing that limit, it isn’t unsafe. A pilot project, therefore, is a waste of time.

Last November, when the government of Premier Danielle Smith signaled its desire to let Albertans drive nearer the engineered top speed on major highways, it made no mention of a “pilot project.” Indeed, it said it was considering the move for all major rural roads.

It then launched an online survey to test the support of Albertans. The survey attracted 59,000 participants, of whom nearly 70 per cent agreed it was a good move.

Shortly after the survey concluded, however, last December the government made its first mention of “a trial” of the new speed limit.

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Even then, few observers expected they meant one tiny test section of Queen Elizabeth II Highway from south of Leduc to about the Millet turnoff.

Maybe the entire length of the QEII from Edmonton to Calgary since a million cars a year use that stretch. If you truly feel you need a test before taking the plunge, that might make more sense.

The stretch south from Leduc was chosen because, according to Dreeshen, it has a lot of overpasses on which speed sensors can be attached to see how many drivers are doing the new, higher speed and how many are going slower or even faster.

The province admits more than 40 per cent of drivers already drive 120 km/h or faster. One Mountie I interviewed said there were so many drivers going over 120 that he and his colleagues didn’t even set their radar for under 130 km/h or they wouldn’t be able to keep up with all the violators.

Besides, people driving 120 km/h or even 125 were not a dire threat to road safety.

Indeed, in study after study around North America, drivers going 15 km/h below the flow of traffic (not simply below the speed limit but below that average of most of the other drivers) are as likely to cause accidents as those driving 10 km/h faster than the flow.

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In Texas, which is roughly the same area as Alberta, the highest speed limit is the equivalent 140 km/h and their population per square kilometre is six times higher (although the highest limit applies only in portions of the state with a per capita population only about double Alberta’s).

I would say this doesn’t need to be tested before being applied provincewide. Enough research already exists. Moreover, a 22-km road test is not going to generate enough useful information anyway.

lgunter@postmedia.com

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