The City of Toronto faced with a budget crunch is looking for new ways to raise revenues. The City of Toronto Act has given the city the power to raise various taxes that would help it balance its budget, but the Mayor and Councillors have been reluctant to propose any new taxes. Advertising has been a popular way for the city to raise money but with the insides and outsides of Toronto's buses already plastered with ads, with posters and video advertising lining the subway stations, the space on Toronto's street furniture up for sale as part of the new Coordinated Street Furniture initiative what space is left to sell? Are traffic signals the answer?

Will video ads on Traffic signals be coming soon?

A proposal to install LCD video screens in Pedestrian crosswalk signals, or ped-heads as they are called by transportation staff, to play ads seems foolish but is that the next place we will see advertising?

"Toronto is currently installing countdown timers in the ped-heads that let people know how long they have to cross the street," said Ms. Duper, a spokesperson for this project, "why can't they also tell you where you can buy your next cup of coffee?" She points to the huge potential market for this next advertising frontier. "Think of the thousands of people who stand at intersections watching the hand waiting for it to change. Those are precious seconds wasted that could be used for watching advertising. That is a huge untapped market". The countdown timers use LED's to show the changing numbers. The cost of LCD display panels is plummeting which could make this project financially feasible.

There are no indications that the Mayor is going to pull this out of the hat as a way to solve the city's budget woes, however, there are no consultations planned on traffic signal advertising so a cynical City Hall watcher might suspect it is a done deal. The project spokesperson Ms. Duper says that she would like to have consultations once the LCD panels are installed to ask people questions such as "Is the volume too loud?" or "Should the e-terminals on the ped-heads be touch screens to allow pedestrians to make on-line purchases?" They would also should be asked if the project should proceed to phase two, replacing the standard red yellow and green signal lights with 52 inch plasma displays that will display video ads along with images of the traffic signal. "A significant portion of the display will still show an image of the changing stoplights, as long as that doesn't detract from the appearance of the ads."

Ms. Duper added that those who might be opposed should consider the revenues that the city will raise and the fact that 25% of the advertising time would be dedicated to public service advertising. There is no confirmation to the rumor that that the city is planning to use that free air time to run ads for its 'One Cent NOW!' campaign at every street corner of the city in a last ditch effort to show the federal government how desperate Toronto is to get a secure source of revenue.

25% of advertising time would be reserved for Public Service Announcements.