Drivers encounter signs of humanity
Safety messages such as ‘Someone loves you, drive safe’ are met with appreciation
The message is a matter of life and death. But, as one motorist put it, the tone is warm rather than bossy or scary.
Most drivers are accustomed to seeing traffic and public safety messages on the 18 programmable LED signs located on the Don Valley Parkway, Gardiner Expressway and Lake Shore Blvd.
Commuters look to them for information on just how tough the drive to work or home will be.
But this fall, the public safety messages usually posted in the off-peak when traffic is less of an issue have taken on a little more character as the city’s transportation services department digs a bit deeper into its library of 58 non-congestion-related messages.
"Now, if people are driving down the same road, they don’t see the same message every day," said Rajnath Bissessar, the intelligent transportation systems operations manager.
Instead of just reminding you to keep a safe distance from the vehicle ahead or to practise courteous driving, there’s a certain humanity, even a bit of wit, in some of the messages, which are programmed from the city’s Transportation Operations Centre on Don Mills Rd., south of Eglinton Ave.
Added to the mix lately are messages such as: “Someone loves you, drive safe”; “Leave sooner, drive slower, live longer”; “Your life matters, don’t speed”; and “Be cautious, life is precious.”
Locked away in the traffic operations centre, staff such as Bissessar don’t hear much about the drivers’ response.
But this time around, a few people have actually sent emails saying the messages had given them a smile.
They were “pleasantly surprised with the tone of the message,” Bissessar said.
“It wasn’t directing them to do this or do that. It was surprising to some people that the message was a little more positive,” said Bissessar.
While he hasn’t found any research evaluating the benefit of public safety campaign messages on road signs, a 2010 study by the University of California concluded that a limited number of studies do “document positive behavioural change resulting from road condition and route guidance messages.”
In Toronto, public safety messages rank at the bottom of a hierarchy of programmable messages.
At the top is the Amber Alert, notifying the public of a child abduction.
Then there are the incident notifications that alert drivers to lane and road closures. That’s followed by travel-time messages telling motorists how long it’s likely to take them to reach a certain destination or exit along the expressway, compared with a potential alternate route.
Travel times are determined based on the Bluetooth technology found in newer vehicles. The car sends a signal to readers posted along the road and the traffic operations centre times the signal. No data is stored and nobody identifies the particular vehicle, Bissessar stressed.
Sometimes when the signs don’t appear to accurately reflect the conditions, it’s because the signal is tak- ing so long to reach the destination point the programmers aren’t aware just how congested the road is, said Rocelle De Lavega, supervisor with Fortran Traffic System, the company Toronto contracts to operate the road signs.
After travel time messages, there are messages about congestion. For example, many days commuters will see that the Gardiner is moving slowly from Lake Shore to Dufferin in the rush hours.
Those are followed by alerts involving planned road closures or lane restrictions, such as the annual weekend shutdowns of the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner.
Finally, commuters may see a public safety message, a default when there’s no congestion or major disruption up ahead.
There’s a schedule of five messages that get rotated through each month, said Bissessar.
“It’s a different slant in terms of the message, and I think it is being appreciated by the public,” he said.