Johnny Au
Senior Member
New traffic light this week:
Marlee and Viewmount
Marlee and Viewmount
This was approved by TEYCC in February 2020 and it normally takes between 1 and 2 years for traffic lights approved by Council to actually be installed.Also a new light coming to College and Palmerston.
?!This was approved by TEYCC in February 2020 and it normally takes between 1 and 2 years for traffic lights approved by Council to actually be installed.
Presumably they need to draw up specs, see where power etc will come from, find $$$ to buy the equipment and then schedule the work - often done when they are working in that area on something else. It may well take TOO long but these things do (reasonably) take time.?!
Why?
They literally have to do that planning before it even goes to the respective area council, or city council. You can even see it by looking at the documents in the agenda so I highly doubt that is the reason for why it takes so long. Heck, bike lanes are quicker to install.Presumably they need to draw up specs,
I've never seen a request to council that includes even the design, let alone the specs. Best I see is a sketch showing the location.They literally have to do that planning before it even goes to the respective area council, or city council.
Black heads with yellow backboards is the combination with the best visibility. The lights themselves contrast highly with the black background, and the yellow backboard is very attention-grabbing.New or replacement permanent traffic signals on Mississauga roads go back to the city's older standard of black casings with yellow blackboard, the type used in Hamilton since the 1960s This is on Bloor Street near Tomken Road. I personally prefer it to the all-yellow standard used in most Ontario municipalities.
Waterloo Region, Sault Ste. Marie, and Sudbury all use this type. Mississauga installed these before, until the mid 1970s (with a few still in use), and Burlington did until 1990 or so. A few municipalities use all-black signals in their downtown areas (Kincardine, Exeter, Kingston, Richmond Hill) as well.
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Black heads with yellow backboards is the combination with the best visibility. The lights themselves contrast highly with the black background, and the yellow backboard is very attention-grabbing.
One of my pet peeves regarding signal head colour are our yellow pedestrian signal heads. The bright yellow colour creates far more visual clutter than an all-black design, and it's only visible from the directions where the signal does not apply. From the front they're already all-black. I'd like it if Ontario municipalities start ordering black heads instead, especially with the increasing number of bicycle or transit signals which are black anyway.
On the narrow subject of truncating signals. I think the thing that drives any person nuts, no matter the mode of transport, is if you find yourself at a signal at 5am on a Sunday, you're the only vehicle/cyclist/pedestrian for kms any which way, and you're there at a red.
Obviously it would not impair safety if you went across (as pedestrians almost certainly would); but as a motorist (or transit operator) one can't be ignorant of a potentially serious and expensive ticket.
The fact the light has a 'useless' signal, to the value of no one, and can't self-correct seems a real issue in this day in age.
On the simple level, I don't understand why we don't use the principle of the 'flashing red' where you come to a stop, make sure its clear, then go.
That was quite common when I was young (late 70s) lights only cycled during the day and went to flashing red after a certain hour.
Absent that, we need a light that recognizes when its wasting people's time to no particular benefit.