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Editorial: The phantoms return

October 3, 2019   ·   0 Comments

THE MOST RECENT installation of traffic signals on Highway 10 was a few years ago at the road’s junction with Monora Park and Cedar Grove roads, mid-way between the signals at First Street and Hockley Road.

The signals are of a standard highway design, intended to give preference to the highway traffic, with the lights staying green until there was some cross traffic or a pedestrian waiting. The lights would normally turn red only when sensors embedded in the pavement detected a gap in the traffic flow.

The signals worked well until the past summer, when the mechanism in the control box governing the lights began detecting non-existent cross-traffic. The result was that every time there was a gap in the highway traffic the lights would change and stay red for about 30 seconds instead of the normal 10 seconds or so needed to accommodate the few cross-traffic vehicles.

Finally last week, an Aecon truck turned up and the crew spent a couple of hours getting the lights to work properly.

They did, for a few hours, and then the phantoms returned to the scene, and as of this Wednesday long lineups of highway traffic were back during peak travel periods.

We’ve still four weeks ’til Hallowe’en, so it will be interesting to see whether anyone can make the phantoms disappear.

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