The City of Toronto has apologized after misspelled signs were installed, blaming the mistakes on human error.
John Oughton, who spotted one of the mistakes, provided Global News with a photo of one of the signs, directing cyclists and pedestrians to “Lake Shore Trial.”
Oughton said he worked as a proofreader for a year, has been an editor and an English teacher.
“You see a lot of mistakes … marking papers by students,” he said.
“The sign here for the Lake Shore Trail said ‘Lake Shore Trial,’ which is a transposition of letters that a spell checker wouldn’t catch.”
In a statement, the City of Toronto said there were two misspelled signs that were installed as part of more than 500 cycling signs in December 2023.
“Replacements for the two erroneous signs are in fabrication and will be installed by the end of this week,” the statement said, calling instances of typos “rare.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, the sign reading “Lake Shore Trial” and one reading “Downton” had been replaced with correct spelling.
Oughton called the quick fix “impressive.”
“City staff ensure prompt correction when notified of an exceptional instance of a spelling mistake on a City fabricated sign,” the City said.
“Furthermore, the associated costs for rectification are insignificant, underscoring the rarity of such errors in the City’s comprehensive signage network.”
To replace the two signs, it cost around $210, the City said.
“This was a result of a human error in the proofreading process,” the City said.
“We are actively reviewing and reinforcing our internal protocols to ensure a more robust system is in place to catch such errors before signs are installed.”
Coun. Paula Fletcher, who oversees the ward where the incorrect signs were placed, said she isn’t sure exactly what happened or who is to blame, whether it was someone at the City, a contractor, or at a print shop.
“Well I have to find out,” she said.
“If that was sent out to a consultant and they gave us all these signs and they were wrong, well, they shouldn’t get another contract… because they don’t know how to spell.”
“But I think it’s kind of interesting because if you’ve been on the Lake Shore lately with the Gardiner (taken) down, the Lake Shore actually is a trial,” Fletcher joked.
Meanwhile, while Global News was out filming to cover this story, another sign with a spelling mistake was seen, advising drivers of a “Traffic Claming Zone.”
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