River Road new speed limits. | GTAMotorcycle.com

River Road new speed limits.

FJRgeezer

Well-known member
Took a ride along the recently completely opened River Road today. It looks like congratulations are deserved for our brethren. All the speed limits have been lowered through the whole road. What was 80 is now 60, and more importantly what was 60 is now 50 which is a very large portion of the road. Anybody who has ridden that road knows that it is very easy to leak up to 100 without much effort or without even noticing. So hello “stunt riding “ charges. Congratulations we have turned River Road into The Forks of the Credit Road. I can only assume the Hockley road is next.
 
Yup I noticed that a few weeks ago. If you stay at that limit, it's pretty boring.

A few wreck it for the rest.
 
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Hockley Rd just before and after Airport Rd is already there ... down to 50 kmh now. Saw it this morning.
 
I heard that about both Hockley and River Road from a riding buddy who was on both today. :/


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It honestly doesn't sound relevant to most who ride there, not many following the old speed limit either....
 
All depends on how they enforce it. A lot of River Road is now a community safety zone (despite having few private driveways). If they enforce it stringently, they're probably going to find that most of the violators are local residents. That has happened elsewhere time and time again.
 
The new limits will probably be enforced for the rest of the year. I've been through there twice since the changes and saw OPP both times. First time he lit up his lights as I passed and then pulled into a driveway. Didn't follow me even though I was about 25 over the new limit.

BTW, it's now 60kph between Airport Road and Terra Nova. Then 50kph between Terra Nova and Prince of Wales Road, then back to 60kph over to Horning's Mills. There are three separate "Community Safety Zones" as well.

As noted above, Hockley was also changed to 50kph, but it only extends for a few hundred metres east and west of the Airport Road intersection.
 
Aren't 'community safety zones' now able to put in photo radar in those areas? They'll add more and more of such zones and start throwing up radar and 'money please'.

Or is that just in Toronto?
 
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No, that's the way the provincial legislation is written. Municipalities can put community safety zones wherever they want, the only criteria is that it's warranted "in the opinion of" the town council. No engineering studies, no qualified expert opinions. One complainer on any road anywhere happens to bend the right ears in town council, and presto, community safety zone with absurdly low speed limit. There is no recourse for road users (drivers). I've been predicting for quite a while that with photo radar being permitted in community safety zones, it wouldn't be long before effectively entire towns would be community safety zones with speed cameras installed to the point of economic viability.

One word: Backlash.
 
No, that's the way the provincial legislation is written. Municipalities can put community safety zones wherever they want, the only criteria is that it's warranted "in the opinion of" the town council. No engineering studies, no qualified expert opinions. One complainer on any road anywhere happens to bend the right ears in town council, and presto, community safety zone with absurdly low speed limit. There is no recourse for road users (drivers). I've been predicting for quite a while that with photo radar being permitted in community safety zones, it wouldn't be long before effectively entire towns would be community safety zones with speed cameras installed to the point of economic viability.

One word: Backlash.
It also allows the doubling of speed fines. Nice revenue bump there.
 
@Brian P and @Soulcatcher668 thanks for that...I remember this discussion a while back and I wrote my concern would be the extension of these 'safety zones' further and further away from school zones.

Cameras are next I'm sure. It's like printing money.
 
If they enforce it stringently, they're probably going to find that most of the violators are local residents.

I go through a number of the zones during my commute. I’ve found from following the residents they do just under the limit in their own zone, but once they’re out of it, go up to 15-20 over. When they go through the next zone (that isn’t theirs), they don't slow down. NIMBYism at it’s finest.
 
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A few days ago, I was in the area. Had a different police escort the two times I rode through. I get it if they were camped out in a hot spot, speed gun out, but its almost like comissioned sales people waiting at the entrance to a store.
 
Haven't been out that way all year, was planning for a weekend trip but might have to re-plan. How's the road surface? I heard they re-paved a good chunk of it?

Hey, at least if you get lit up, you got a pretty good chance of slipping away
 
Surface is fine on River Road itself, although there's no new pavement in sections that matter. Prince of Wales (intersecting road) is a mess. Don't count on running from the cops, it's very easy for another cop car to be waiting for you at the other end, and then you are in biiiig trouble. I have seen multiple cop cars there on the same trip earlier this year at times when they obviously had nothing better to do. It's a prime spot for them to be conducting an "operation".

Excess enforcement of overly stringent rules means I will no longer support businesses in the area. It's about all I can do.
 
Excess enforcement of overly stringent rules means I will no longer support businesses in the area. It's about all I can do.

Your comment makes me think about the current situation of all the "local residents only" barricades up around Belfountain.
 
Your comment makes me think about the current situation of all the "local residents only" barricades up around Belfountain.

Those are (1) legitimately on side streets that through traffic need not use and it's pointless for anyone else to enter them, I think only one of them is on a road that isn't a dead-end, and (2) not enforceable. Caledon has been going nutso with the 40 zones and community safety zones just like every other municipality in the area, but at least theirs don't extend unreasonably beyond what is actually the built-up area.
 
Local residents are sick of non-residents clogging up their streets and/or speeding through their communities. My only surprise is that it's taken so long these changes to occur.

Around my cottage area in the Kawarthas I'm seeing stretches of 80 kph roads move to 60 kph which is a pain. The larger risk to enjoyable riding, unfortunately, are roads resurfaced with some type of chip seal vs. asphalt. I took a look at the local township long term road maintenance plan available online and a huge number of local asphalt roads will be chip sealed or microsurfaced over the next 5 - 10 years rendering them just about useless for riding with bikes outfitted with street tires.

I'm thinking about keeping my 750 lb sport touring bike, which isn't great on gravel or loose surfaces, for longer distance touring and getting a relatively light weight type of bike with 80/20 or 50/50 tires for local riding. Yamaha T700, or something similar, looks like it might fit the bill + it will give me the ability to explore local fire roads / back roads which I really can't do on my ST1100.
 

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