There's one place where Dufferin County's roadways are vastly different from those in

Orangeville and Shelburne.

Both towns have what we'd term "politically correct" intersections, where stop signs have been erected for both intersecting streets, usually after pressure from residents wanting to "calm" the traffic.

Dufferin has a few all-way stops, notably on County Road 11 at County 10 and Amaranth's 20 Sideroad. However, when it came to dealing with a busy intersection like the junction of Roads 3 and 24 near Marsville, the decision was to install sophisticated, traffic-sensing signals.

Now similar pressure is building for lights costing $125,000 or so to be installed on Dufferin 109 at County 25 south of Grand Valley, where roughly 6,600 cars and trucks pass daily during business hours on the former Highway 9 and up to 180 vehicles an hour try to enter 109 from 25.

Trevor Lewis, the county's public works director, acknowledges that a three-way stop at that

intersection would make it a lot easier for traffic from 25 to enter the former highway, and that such an installation might be attractive politically, if not in terms of engineering parameters.

Well, we think serious consideration should be given to providing all-way stops at all the junctions between County 109 and other county roads - Nos. 3, 5, 12, 16 and 24 as well as 25.

If nothing else, that would be perfectly consistent and just what you might expect to see at the junction of ordinary county or regional roads where traffic signals aren't deemed necessary.

Of course, the six additional stops for traffic between Orangeville and the Wellington border would produce howls of rage from transport drivers and all others who regard this as an important provincial roadway, even though it's now paid for entirely by county ratepayers.

Who knows? The negative reaction might even lead to the Province caving in and returning this important road to the King's Highway system where it belongs, and had been for 70 years.