Pan Am signs point way with letters, pictograms

Yorkregion.com
June 24, 2015
By Laura Finney

Drivers may have noticed some new orange and blue signs popping up in Markham and across the GTA.

The signs are designed to help people find venues during the Pan Am Games.

They are orange and blue, and feature three letter venue codes like ANG for the Angles Glen Golf Club and MAR for the Atos Markham Pan Am/Parapan Am Centre.

“This Games-time signage will help our visitors from near and far find their way around with confidence and ease,” said Saad Rafi, CEO of the TORONTO 2015 Pan Am Games Organizing Committee.

The signs will show spectators the way to events using the game’s sport pictograms, arrows and the venue codes.

All together there are more than 5,000 orange and blue temporary signs displayed across 16 municipalities. The three letter codes correspond with information on tickets, spectator guides and the trip planner app.

There are also new signs on provincial highways that show locations of temporary high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes.

These lanes are to be used by carpoolers, families, public transit vehicles, accredited games vehicles, electric vehicles with green licence plates, licensed taxis, airport limousines and emergency vehicles.

Temporary HOV lanes will open on June 29 along the 401, 404, 427 and the QEW. They also include stretches of the Don Valley Parkway, Gardiner Expressway, Lakeshore Boulevard and Jane Street.

From June 29 to July 27 vehicles with three or more occupants can use the temporary HOV lanes. After that, the requirement drops to two occupants until Aug. 18.

The temporary network also includes about 50 kms of existing HOV lanes that will be converted to a three occupant requirement from June 29 to July 27.

The lanes will operate from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. When not in operation, they will be open to regular traffic.