[ShonTron]

Agreed... why is this city so afraid of black? Almost every other cosmopolitan city uses black lamposts, black utility poles, black transit shelters etc. Toronto is often ridiculed for having neighbourhoods of gray mediocrity (see Bay St condo corridor), soa flash of black here and there would at least in the slightest add some contrast to the streets.

Yes! The garbage bins, and shelter supports (like Mississauga's version of the Mediacom/CBS shelters) look better in black.

I'd go one further and suggest black traffic lights. The Ontario yellow 12-8-8 standard with gigantic yellow backplate is ugly, especially the rear, which should be black no matter what (Sudbury and York Region has grey backs, which even are better).

US States that have yellow lights, if they come with backplates, are usually black. Every US State west of the Mississippi (with a few exceptions, like Tucson and Dallas), and some east of it (ie New England, Wisconsin, Illinois) use black, as does most of the world. New York has a deep olive colour, except in municipalities like Buffalo and New York City.

 

[khris]

Yes! The garbage bins, and shelter supports (like Mississauga's version of the Mediacom/CBS shelters) look better in black.

I'd go one further and suggest black traffic lights. The Ontario yellow 12-8-8 standard with gigantic yellow backplate is ugly, especially the rear, which should be black no matter what (Sudbury and York Region has grey backs, which even are better).

US States that have yellow lights, if they come with backplates, are usually black. Every US State west of the Mississippi (with a few exceptions, like Tucson and Dallas), and some east of it (ie New England, Wisconsin, Illinois) use black, as does most of the world. New York has a deep olive colour, except in municipalities like Buffalo and New York City.

Black traffic lights are awesome. So are the dark green. I just hate the bright yellow.

 

[drum118]

There is talk that Queens Quay fixture's will be out of wood when the road goes under construction stating fall 2010.

Black or blue would be great.

 

[Dilla]

From Daily Dose of Imagery

They're better, I guess...

 

[lead82]

They look very cheap. They are made of very cheap plastic materials. Not very elegant for a city that strives to be 'world crass', er world class. ;-)

We could have done a lot better.

 

[DSC]

They look very cheap. They are made of very cheap plastic materials. Not very elegant for a city that strives to be 'world crass', er world class. ;-) We could have done a lot better.

Actually I quite like the two or three I have seen - they are far less intrusive, take up less sidewalk space, do not have advertising AND they have the cute foot-pedals which mean you don't have to touch the yukky flaps.

 

[lead82]

That may be true, but my point was that they could have used better materials.

 

[nfitz]

Time will be the test I guess. Wonder if they'll last as long as some of the salt boxes I've seen around the city - which seem to be decades old.

 

[christiesplits]

They're a far cry from those ghastly "MegaBins." Never in my life have I felt more inclined to utilize my baseball bat outside the diamond.

 

[jks]

They are a huge improvement, and the pedal is very practical. The appearance really isn't that bad either. the main problem is with the plasticity (?) of the bins. If only the plastic green roof thing was instead glass, in line with the transit shelter roof, and the infoTOgo pillars.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

on the bright side, at least they're corrosion proof. also, if they were made from aluminum, they'd be stolen for scrap like telephone boxes.

 

[MisterF]

They look like the garbage container in my kitchen.


Except mine's black.

 

[kEiThZ]

I half expect it to start talking like R2D2....

 

[299 bloor call control.]

To the people who asked, the bins work without the pedal - you can push the flaps over the opening much like the existing ones. The pedal just saves you the gross factor.

 

[barrytron3030]

the almighty christopher hume trashes the new trash bins: http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/614181