Alberta's Minister of Transportation says he is cautiously optimistic about the province's pilot project testing a 120 km/h speed limit. The early data, he indicated, has so far been reassuring.
The pilot is running on a stretch of the QE2 south of Leduc. According to the minister, the data gathered to this point shows no increase in collisions along that section of highway.
At the same time, the average driver's speed has risen only slightly. On that part of Highway 2, the average speed went from 118 km/h to 120 km/h once the higher limit was in place.
For the minister, that result was telling. He said it showed that Albertans are already travelling at the design speeds set for rural divided highways, which are built for 120 km/h, and that drivers were moving at that speed regardless.
He described the early findings as reassuring, suggesting the higher limit on that corridor had not changed driver behaviour in a way that raised safety concerns.
Any next steps toward increasing speeds on other divided highways will still depend on the data from the completed pilot project, which covers a 22-kilometre stretch of road.