417 highway signs

The accident that shut down the 417 earlier in the week seems to have got the attention of the media.  While it was the citizens in the city who were impacted, and mainly those who reside in the west end, the responsibility for the 417, as with all 400 series Highways lies with the province.  That is why the OPP has responsibility for traffic on those highways and not City Police.   This is why an OPP vehicle was apparently involved in the incident in question.

There has been a ‘we need to be informed’ about these types of things cry by various people in the city, including Mr.  Rick Chiarelli, according to CFRA on Thursday.  He also, I suppose based on his ‘corporate knowledge’, stated a previous request was made to staff to investigate how to handle these types of situations.

One obvious solution is to have the province install Variable Message Signs  [VMS] at  major interchanges on the 416/417 just as the MTO have done in and around Toronto [including the 401 near their offices].  These signs, established and proven technology are already in use in the province as well as throughout the world.  VMS, by definition allow messages to be displayed of either a textual or text/graphic nature.  Imagine how much putting a Message of “417 CLOSED AT MARCH UNTIL 8PM” followed by location specific information such as “EXIT AHEAD AND USE TIMM OR CARLING’ for a sign approaching the Moodie exit would have mitigated the problem.

Don’t do a fancy redesign of the signs, choose one that is currently built, in use AND supported for its expected lifetime, order up a couple dozen and install them.  The toughest part of the job, given this scenario, is the design of the structure to hold the signs.  Again, this would be basic structural engineering and not really rocket science.  A few dollars would be need to change the names of the sign locations but if MTO was approached with the “Give us the Toronto System” with Ottawa replacing Toronto, the wheel would not have to be reinvented., perhaps only a few bumps resolved..

My questions are:  What happened to the old request Mr. Chiarelli has referred to?  Has the City approached the Province about implementation of VMS?  Who?  When?  What was the result?  Maybe we should ask all of the local Members of Provincial Parliament to propose and support this type of initiative?

Better traffic flow information and control with messages such as  “EMERGENCY VEHICLE APPROACHING FROM BEHIND” followed by “MOVE RIGHT’ on the highways will also serve to improve transit, the environment and emergency services.

This blog was also done without the need for a consultant to be hired.

I also wonder why it took pressure from CFRA staff during an on air interview to get the Police Services Board chair to take any action at the provincial level on the highway closure.   Shouldn’t we have proactive rather than reactive Council members?

 

picture from cbc.ca