Lately, the overhead electronic signs on the DVP have displayed such singsongy messages as “Check your gauges, control your rages,” and “Why fool with fate? Don’t tailgate”

Lately, the overhead electronic signs on the DVP have displayed such singsongy messages as “Check your gauges, control your rages,” and “Why fool with fate? Don’t tailgate.” What poetic soul produced these highway epistles?—J. Kelly O’Connor, Agincourt

The verses are the work of the city’s Traffic Management Centre, which operates a quintet of signs on the DVP and Gardiner. Normally dedicated to the prosaic (if noble) task of warning drivers about lane closures or incoming squalls, the harbingers turn to more rarefied discourse when the roads are trouble-free. The missives change daily and are usually penned by city engineers. But according to one, Steve Kemp, new voices are welcome. Stick-shift Shakespeares can send submissions (three lines maximum, each under 22 characters) to tmcdisp@toronto.ca. It may not be The Paris Review, but at least you’re guaranteed a captive audience.