Utility pole obscures signs attached to a pole behind it
Drivers shouldn’t have to play peek-aboo with a utility pole to get a good look at traffic signs they need to see to do the right thing.
Traffic signs are ubiquitous in the Big City, with so many directing drivers to do this, that or the other that most people barely notice them, or so they think.
Over time, drivers learn to look at and absorb the information — often essential — conveyed by signs, without forming a fully conscious thought. It’s a subliminal process for many people.
The signs have a lot more influence over what drivers do than it might seem. So it’s important that they’re highly visible.
But when traffic signs are hidden, as is the case at Sherbourne and Shuter Sts., they might do something that could net them a ticket, like make an illegal right turn on a red light.
A kindly Star editor sent us a link to Twitter — a form of communication we stopped using years ago — that included a tweet of a photo of one too many poles at the busy intersection.
The photo shows the edges of three traffic signs on the northwest corner, peeking out from behind a pole that was erected right in front of the one with the signs on it, making them impossible to read.
The sender of the tweet, who identified himself as Papa Andy, noted that the signs say, “no right (turn) on red, no trucks, bike lane. Nothing drivers might need to know.”
We went there and found signs facing westbound drivers on Shuter, including the all-important one that shows no right turns on a red light. It would be easy to attract the attention of a cop with a ticket at the ready, by missing the sign and making an illegal turn.
STATUS: Allen Pinkerton, who’s in charge of city traffic signage, said Toronto Hydro likely put up a new pole as part of its pole replacement program, but has yet to transfer its wires onto it. The standard protocol is for Hydro to contact the city once the wires have been moved to the new pole, to ask for the signs to also be transferred. But Pinkerton said that since we told him about it, they’ll move the signs ASAP.
What's broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. Email to jlakey@thestar.ca or follow @TOStarFixer on Twitter