UPDATE: Toronto mega-project chooses to keep wrong signage, changes entire road instead

You may recall our visit to the intersection of Dufferin and Eglinton in early August, one of the areas where Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit (LRT) has been under construction for more than a decade (believe it or not…)

Eglinton Avenue has long been a traffic nightmare thanks to this boondoggle. But we get it: there’s plenty of digging and erecting to be done when a transit line is being built. Yet, we pondered the question: could the folks at Metrolinx at least make certain the correct road signage is in place? The answer is, well, no, they cannot… because for more than half a year, incorrect signage at this intersection informed northbound Dufferin motorists that the right lane ends, when in fact it is the left lane that ends. Do the people working here not know — or do they simply not care?

So it was that after yet again making the wrong merge and then having to re-merge into the correct lane (i.e., the lane I was originally driving in), I decided to try and get some sort of resolution.

First step was to inform the construction workers on the project. Many said it wasn’t their responsibility, and one fellow noted he was too distraught to weigh in on the topic because his ant farm had perished the night before.

Eventually, I got in touch with a spokeswoman for Metrolinx, who told me to photograph the incorrect signage and email it to her (um, why am I doing this, I thought? But I did my civic duty nevertheless so that the mouthpiece could go back to eating her ham sandwich).

Weeks later, we returned to the intersection to see if anything had actually been done — i.e., if they had removed the wrong sign noting that the right lane ends or replaced it with a sign noting the left lane ends.

Well, we could not believe our eyes: instead of doing a simple sign switcheroo, the traffic lanes were re-diverted so that the right lane really does end now. (And thus, the former incorrect sign noting the right lane ends is now indeed correct. Brilliant!)

So, in the world of Metrolinx, never embrace a quick and simple solution when a long and costly solution shall suffice. Hey, just put it on the taxpayer tab. And for those beleaguered Torontonians wondering why this transit project is seemingly taking longer to complete than the Great Pyramid of Cheops, now you have a better understanding...