The public would prefer to drive faster rather than slower on Saskatchewan’s highways, says a government spokesperson.
Mike Woods, of the highways department, said that contrary to the Australian situation where a recent report has recommended lowering the speed limit on rural roads to 80 km-h, Saskatchewanians have asked the department to raise it to 110 on some paved roads.
That is not likely to happen, said Woods, because “we have so much level access.” Many of the province’s rural paved highways have grid roads entering them or access points that are uncontrolled by traffic lights. A faster speed would make the highways more dangerous.
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Another highway official said many of the unpaved or grid roads in rural areas already have lower speed limits of 80 km-h. He said the typical accident on these roads is a single vehicle rollover, which can be caused by driving too fast.
Statistics from Saskatchewan Government Insurance show that last year 73 percent of the traffic collisions on rural highways, most of which are paved, were single vehicle accidents and 30 percent of that group was rollovers. For the same period on rural municipal roads, most of which are gravel, single vehicles represented 88 percent of all the accidents and 44 percent of those were rollovers.
