Call it a sign from on high.
They’re too big to be ignored, but not quite a Toronto skyscraper: the city’s first new set of speed signs — courtesy of Premier Doug Ford — went up on Friday near Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute in Scarborough on Birchmount Road, soaring 12 feet above the ground.
Last fall, Ford outlawed speed cameras, dismissing them as “cash grabs” despite his government’s own research showing they’re an effective safety tool.
Instead, Ford promised to bring in other ways to curtail speeding — including signage like these on Birchmount that measure eight feet by three feet. A standard city speed sign is roughly half that long and two feet wide, typically fitting on a seven- or eight-foot tall pole.
The province sent Toronto 80 to put up in 20 school zones — four at each location — that used to be covered by permanent speed cameras. But the signs were so big city staff had to order 12-feet-tall poles costing $160,000.
“They’re large because the intention is to see it. But I don’t know if that’s going to deter people from speeding,” said local Coun. Nick Mantas. “People that usually speed is because it’s a habit.”
Toronto used to have 150 speed cameras, some that rotated among its 641 school zones. The new signs are positioned where the 20 permanent cameras were located. It’s unclear what, if anything, the rest of the city’s school areas will get.
On Birchmount, leading up to the supersized signs is other signage repeatedly warning drivers they are entering a school zone and the speed limit.
Think of the signs’ height — and residents say their effectiveness too — as two average-sized humans standing on each other’s shoulders wearing a very gaudy trench coat.
“It’s comical and theatrical at its core,” said Thomas DeVito, co-founder of advocacy group Parents Against Speeding. “We don’t need a sign that is bigger than Vince Carter to slow down speeders. We already had a policy that worked.”
Here’s a list of the school areas getting the new signs:
- Monsignor Percy Johnson Catholic Secondary School
- St. Jane Frances Catholic School
- Martingrove Collegiate Institute
- Dellcrest School
- Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Institute
- Rockcliffe Middle School/Dennis Avenue Community School
- Drewry Secondary School
- Crescent School
- Ryerson Public School Junior and Senior
- St. Timothy Catholic School
- Jarvis Collegiate Institute
- Ellesmere-Statton Public School
- St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic School
- John A. Leslie Public School
- St. Richard Catholic School
- Meadowvale Public School/Meadowvale Day Care Centre
