Should the speed limit on BC highways be raised?
Posted August 17, 2012 7:29 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – How often do you actually go the speed limit when you’re on the highway?
An advocacy group says speed limits in this province are unjustified.
SENSE (Safety by Education, Not Speed Enforcement) BC claims current laws are just a cash grab, and that most drivers ignore speed limits without endangering themselves or others. The group argues speed doesn’t kill, bad drivers do.
Co-founder Ian Tootill says they aren’t calling for an autobahn. “We want… laws that don’t make law-breakers out of the majority of safe and reasonable drivers. So, whatever the limits need to be on the roads is what we’ll be pushing for. But they’re not set properly in many cases, right now.”
“We convinced the government to do an independent review of speed limits back in 2002, which they completed. It said, as we thought, that some limits on BC highways are too low and should be adjusted upward,” he explains, adding nothing has been done since the review.
Tootill points out other jurisdictions have increased their speed limits. Texas, for example, has jumped to 130 km/hr on freeways.
SENSE helped get rid of photo radar in BC and is behind signs reading “Keep right except to pass.” Its first goal is to increase the speed limit on the Coquihalla Highway; right now, it’s 100-110 km/hr on most stretches.
