Andy Elder, genial owner of Grilltime on Laird Drive, confesses on Twitter today that the traffic lights at McRae (Wicksteed) and Laird qualify for a City News contest to find the most infuriating lights in the GTA. Andy’s tweet was sent to Kevin Frankish who wanted to know more about the intersection. This corner is in and out of the news because of the hockey stick curve that happens when McRae meets Wicksteed. This has prompted an elaborate set of signals mainly to control the left hand turns north and south. The wait time is reminiscent of what Snowbirds call Florida traffic lights. They are forever. The north turn signal from McRae onto Laird is useful however because a driver can’t easily anticipate speeding vehicles westbound on Wicksteed. So those cars have to stop for the left turning traffic off McRae. It’s a bore.
Another bad intersection is St. Clair Avenue East at O’Connor Drive. The timing of the traffic signals for northbound traffic is wrong. Traffic backs up all the way back to Woodbine Avenue.
311 has acknowledged that traffic signal #447 is under investigation.