Alberta launches survey to gather opinions on hiking speed limit to 120 km/h

The Alberta government is looking at increasing the speed limit on divided highways to 120 km/h but is conducting a survey to find out what people think first. 

“We've been slashing commute times for Albertans in our urban centres, but we wanted to do something in rural Alberta,” Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen said in an interview with CBC News on Friday. 

“That's why we're looking at our four-lane or divided highways all across the province.”

The current limit on divided highways like Highway 2 between Edmonton and Calgary is 110 km/h. 

Dreeshen said the roads are engineered for vehicles moving at higher speeds. 

The survey runs until Dec. 12. People will be asked which highways should have the higher speed limit, and whether commercial trucks should be prevented from using the far left lanes on routes with three or more lanes. 

After the survey closes, the province plans to conduct a pilot project to look at the impact of a higher speed limit. 

“We want to make sure that we can increase the speed limits to the actual engineered design that they are, because we're seeing a lot of Albertans are naturally driving these speeds because that's the way they were designed and intended,” Dreeshen said. 

He said the government has looked at jurisdictions where speed limits vary based on road conditions. 

Alberta’s UCP government has previously flagged an interest in raising highway speed limits.

In 2021, Spruce Grove-Stony Plain MLA Searle Turton, now the minister of children and family services, introduced a private member’s bill to raise the speed limit. MLAs on the standing committee on private bills and private member’s bills issued a report on the proposal, which was tabled in the legislature. But the bill didn’t move beyond first reading. 

In 2014, British Columbia raised the speed limit to 120 km/h on three major multi-lane highways, while also increasing the speed limit to 100 km/h or less on 30 other sections of highway. Many of those changes were rolled back in 2018 after serious and fatal crashes. 

The province says the Coquihalla Highway between Kamloops and Hope, B.C., still has a speed limit of 120 km/h, the highest in Canada.

Dreeshen argued highways in Alberta are generally flat, unlike routes in B.C. that wind through mountainous terrain.