Signs of Intelligent (Traffic) Life in the GTA

The minute you're done reading this, check out:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/821316--uxbridge-awaits-a-green-light-to-pull-out-the-stops

You'll have to cut-and-paste that into your browser because I still haven't figured out how to set up a hot link using this blogging software.

The story outlines proposals for the town of Uxbridge to eliminate many of the STOP signs that don't in fact stop anybody in that (or any other) community.

It also hints at the benefits of roundabouts, which are bloody obvious to everyone except, it would seem, most town planners.

The story does quote a planner from Ajax to the east on the success they've had there; it does not mention (but I will - again) the amazing success various communities to the west (Wellington County, Ancaster, et al) have had with the most brilliant traffic control device yet invented.

Where is Halton, where I live?

Where is Mississauga?

Where is Metro Toronto?

Where is Vaughan?

All asleep, apparently.

Or in the hip pockets of stop sign and traffic light manufacturers...

Comments

[Larry]

Ah, something we agree on.

Have a look at this potential roundabout (okay, it's triangular) and see if you can figure out why it needs stop signs rather than yields:

http://bit.ly/bitFB2

If you're in a one-way single lane and the only traffic you encounter going around is also one-way and coming from your right, aren't you effectively yielding anyway, even if the sign says stop?

[Dave]

Is it just me or does Mississauga put traffic lights in at any intersection? And don't get me started on the traffic light timing - it's awful that one light changes green, then as you approach another light 100 metres away, it is changing to red. Not to mention lights that change in the direction I'm going when nobody is waiting in the direction that is getting green.

I've seen roundabouts in action and, once you figure out who has what right of way, they work so much better and cause you less delay on your trip.

One thing that I've always wondered - if accelerating from a stop uses more fuel, do you think the oil companies might have some stake in Mississauga's traffic lights and their timing?

[GZ]

The Region of Waterloo has seen the 'light' and constructed a number of traffic circles; I think they work well at the chosen locations. I contacted the MTO during an EA to suggest traffic circles on the Hanlon in Guelph (Highway 6 - interminable waits at numerous lights) rather than, or as an interim measure to, the proposed multi-million dollar bridges (this Highway is terrible - you accelerate to highway speeds and then stop at the next light for 3 minutes). Their response was that traffic circles are an unproven technology but that they represent an area of active research within the Ministry...

[Jim Kenzie]

Hi Larry:

Agree we do!

Stop signs here make no sense.

Jim Kenzie

[Jim Kenzie]

Hi GZ:

UNPROVEN!

That's rich...

What pile of sand have these ostriches been hiding their heads in?

Jim Kenzie

[John Frewen-Lord]

Hi Jim - from the roundabout-friendly UK:
In my small local town, they built a bypass, about 1 km long, so that the main street is now a pedestrian precinct. There is a 5-way roundabout at one end of this bypass, two traffic-light controlled standard cross-road intersctions (one side going into a small subdivision, the other going into a town parking lot), and a 3-way roundabout at the far end of the bypass.

In rush hours, there are huge backups resulting from the traffic lights (ridiculous when 90% of the traffic goes straight through, the lights going through multi-phases just to let one car out). There are NO backups resulting from the roundabouts. A beautiful example showing the efficiency of roundabouts compared to traffic lights.