Star: 70% of drivers admit to speeding

[MisterF]

I beg to differ; out here in suburban Cincinnati, the standard freeway speed limit is 65mph (104), and within city boundaries, its 55mph (88). The true speeds are also much lower; its generally 65mph in a 55 zone, 70mph in a suburban 65 zone, and 75 in a rural 65 zone. (88-112-120, respectively). Ontario's speed limits are the same as, if not higher than, the speed limits around here.

104 in the Cincinnati suburbs is faster than 100 in the Toronto suburbs. But I'll concede that 88 in the city is a tiny bit slower than 90 here. Urban speed limits tend to be pretty similar everywhere, it's outside the city where you see the differences. Most states have a speed limit of 70 (113).

I'll be sure not to get in a car with you. 100KM in a stop sign zone?

Stop signs are all over the country. Rural highways and most rural county roads have a design speed of 100. It was an intersection of two county roads where one's a through road, the other has stop signs. If I were driving 80 or even 60 the accident would have still happened.

 

[ShonTron]

Huron County has bumped up its speed limits on its own county roads from 80 to 90, and this includes former provincial highways. It's stange that a flat, usually straight highway like 21 is 80 km/h, while former Highway 86 is 90 km/h. And there'll be stop signs here. Even on a 400-series highway at 100 km/h and a design speed (in most places) of 130 km/h, you need to be able to come to a quick stop if need be due to a collision, sudden volume or any other immediate changes in road conditions.

 

[ShonTron]

104 in the Cincinnati suburbs is faster than 100 in the Toronto suburbs. But I'll concede that 88 in the city is a tiny bit slower than 90 here. Urban speed limits tend to be pretty similar everywhere, it's outside the city where you see the differences. Most states have a speed limit of 70 (113).

I notice that too. I think part of the reason why the speed limits drop on the urban interstates to 55 is that they are typically sub-standard with frequent on and off ramps, without the benefit of acceleration and deceleration lanes (in fact, many interstates don't have these, something which the MTO insists on). Some of the urban US highways I have driven on, such as I-94 in Detroit, US-101 in Los Angeles and the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago, it's a whole other experience, and one of the most stressful driving experiences, as traffice was moving and weaving all over the place. I found this as well with Montreal's urban Autoroutes like the Decarie, but never in Toronto.

 

[interchange42]

Toronto's one remaining really bad onramp with a short entrance merge is the Jameson/Lakeshore entrance to the Gardiner westbound, and that's not an MTO road. It's restricted in length owing to the width of the pier between the bridges that carry Dowling Avenue over the Gardiner and the railway tracks. In a perfect world there would be enough money to re-engineer that pier much narrower and re-build that bridge.

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[Admiral Beez]

Last week I was driving from New Dundee to the 401 and a car approaching me flashed his high beams. I first I thought, what's his problem my lights are working, but in a flash I realized he was warning me that one of Fantino's troopers was around the next bend. Sure enough, I came across the OPP car, and I was already well below the speed limit (whereas I was slightly over before). I now flash my high beams to anyone else who I see is approaching a speed trap. I don't feel bad, since I'm acheiving the exact same thing the police do, that of making others slow down, but in this instance, McGuinty doesn't make the cash.

 

[Towered]

Toronto's one remaining really bad onramp with a short entrance merge is the Jameson/Lakeshore entrance to the Gardiner westbound

Actually the ramp from Islington eastbound on to the QEW/Gardiner is horrible too. It's ridiculously short and if there are cars approaching from behind in the right lane you're forced into the next ramp, which heads northbound on Islington. I've managed to avoid this thus far, but there have been many close calls, especially when there's an asshole in front of me who is too stupid to realize he/she's entering a higway and doesn't appropriately speed up.

 

[nfitz]

Sure enough, I came across the OPP car, and I was already well below the speed limit (whereas I was slightly over before).

Why drop well below the speed limit? They aren't going to ticket you if you are only slightly (I suppose it depends what you mean by slightly! ) over

 

[whatmeworry]

There is one highway rule that should be carved into many peoples' foreheads, and were it followed, most problems would be solved. That is: If you are continually being passed on your right, you are in the wrong fucking lane, move your dumb ass over to the right. This applies not only to the thoughtless jerk in the leftmost 'passing' lane, but the equally thoughtless (and usually lazy) ass who parks himself in the middle of three lanes and dawdles along while traffic whizzes by on both sides, like one earlier poster admits to doing. Lazy middle-lane drivers are the bane of expressway travel in this province. They drive there because it's easy ... they won't have to pull out of the rightmost lane to let merging traffic onto the highway. They effectively doze off and to hell with the rest of the drivers using the highway.

Sure speed kills. The only way to avoid any deaths is to limit speeds to, what, 50 kms per hour or something. If you want a higher limit than that, you're willing to have some people die, and are only arguing over how many .

 

[Admiral Beez]

Oh I couldn't agree more on that. This morning there were tons of folks who must have set their cruise control at 115 kph and then just sat in the left lane, forcing the rest of traffic doing the usual 125-130 kph over to the right.

 

[ITcomputer]

You have to ask, if you are going slower than 100km on a 400 series highway, what the hell are you doing driving it in the first place?

 

[whatmeworry]

Oh I couldn't agree more on that. This morning there were tons of folks who must have set their cruise control at 115 kph and then just sat in the left lane, forcing the rest of traffic doing the usual 125-130 kph over to the right.

And don't you just LOVE the idiots who have their cruise control set at 115, who pull out to "pass" another car doing 114.9, who then take 5 fucking minutes to complete the pass without once looking in the mirror to see the huge lineup of cars behind them?

 

[MisterF]

And don't you just LOVE the idiots who have their cruise control set at 115, who pull out to "pass" another car doing 114.9, who then take 5 fucking minutes to complete the pass without once looking in the mirror to see the huge lineup of cars behind them?

Nothing's worse than truck divers doing that. It's especially annoying east of Cobourg where the highway's only 2 lanes each way, so when one passes the entire highway's blocked. They don't hesitate to cut people off when they change lanes - I've had to slam on my brakes more than a few times to avoid them. It's so bad that when you're passing a group of trucks it's almost guaranteed that one of them will get in front of you before you get past them all. I've noticed that cars will tailgate each other when they're passing trucks just to prevent them from getting in front of them. And with each truck driver going maybe 0.1 km/h faster than the guy he's passing, it probably saves a grand total of 2 minutes on the average trip. I drove to Ottawa the other weekend and I was really wishing I'd taken the train!

 

[Admiral Beez]

When I was living in New Brunswick, I was always pleased with the highway driving. Everyone moved to the right after passing. Even if you were driving at 140 kph (30 kph over the 110 kph limit), you'd do it in the right lane until time to pass.

 

[lawsond]

Grandma driving at 80KM on the 401 during non-rush hour traffic is a bigger hazard than Johnny driving 120KM.
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yeah, that's my experience. drive with the traffic. around toronto you have lots of options...130 + in the fast lane, 120ish in the middle and outside lane for the pokeys. and good for them..because they are in the exit/entrance lane. we need the pokeys.
as for tailgating, it happens in the fast lane regularly. i don't mind it at all as it reminds me that there's a car or cars behind me that want to pass and so i move over to let that happen. and i do the same if there are cars going slower than i am. i find it a matter of courtesy...as odd as that sounds

 

[doady]

"70% of drivers admit to speeding"? Not surprising. Maybe 70% of drivers will admit to being assholes as well.