New Ontario electronic highway signs bilingual, easy to read
Posted January 20, 2015 12:34 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The full-colour electronic signs that dot the 400-series highways in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) will now also be in English and in French.
On Tuesday, Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca announced on Tuesday that they signs will also feature internationally recognized images and symbols with less text to read.
“They convey messages more quickly and with less text, so that drivers recognize important road-safety information quickly and safely,” Del Duca said.
He said the bilingual signs are a first in Canada.
Twenty-one signs are already in operation including on Highway 401 near Toronto and Pickering, the Queen Elizabeth Way in Niagara, Burlington and Mississauga, and also in northeastern Ontario on highways 11 and 17.
The signs are manufactured at Ledstar, which is located in Del Duca’s riding of Vaughan.
The switch-over to full-colour electronic signs began in 2009.
Around 50 “variable message signs” will changeover to the new sign type toward the end of their lifecycle.
