The Alberta government says its trial of a 120 km/h speed limit on a stretch of Highway 2 is so far a “great success.” Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen said he’d be looking to approve “data-driven” expansion of the 22-kilometre stretch south of Leduc that allows for the increased speed. “We are expanding that. The pilot’s now up to 44 kilometres. We’re looking at additional expansion … to see if we can expand 120 km/h on all rural divided highways, knowing that they are designed for 120 km/h,” he told reporters at an unrelated press conference on Wednesday. “The doomsday sayers said if we increased the speed limit to 120 km/h – which is the design speed of our rural divided highways – that we’d see a massive increase in speed. We didn’t see that with the pilot.” Critics of the project had spoken of near misses at regular speeds of 110 km/h. Don Getschel, director of the Alberta Towing Recovery Association, previously told reporters that saving time could cost lives: “We attend multiple fatal collisions on Highway 2 already.” A spokesperson for Alberta’s transportation ministry previously said the pilot project, which began in late April, has resulted in a reduction of crashes: six between the end of May and the end of July, compared to anywhere from six to eight per month before the speed increase implementation. Also between May 29 and July 29, the average speed on the road was 119.6 km/h. Over the same time period in 2025, when the speed limit was 110 km/h, the average speed of drivers was 118 km/h. “The purpose of a pilot is to collect stronger evidence. We are monitoring not only the pilot zone, but also the five kilometres before and after it, while comparing average, high and low driving speeds, collision type and severity, driver experience, and emergency callouts,” the ministry spokesperson said. It also said it would collect data when the highway had wintery, icy roads, as current road conditions have only involved summer months. CTV News Edmonton has reached out to Alberta RCMP for collision data on Highway 2 in the same time frame and is awaiting a response. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Sean McClune
