There is a traffic light in Lindsay that drives me crazy.

I encounter it on my early morning commute, when Kent Street is quiet and Lindsay Square Mall isn’t even open yet. Still, the advance green appears without fail, giving an imaginary line of mall-bound traffic the right of way while I sit waiting at a red.

I have lodged numerous complaints about this traffic light. Unfortunately, all of them have been directed to my husband.

It recently occurred to me that after years of being disproportionately annoyed by this minor inconvenience, I have never tried to find out who is responsible for it. Can the timing change depending on the time of day? Does someone periodically review these things? And, most importantly, who am I actually supposed to tell? 

I did some digging and discovered Kawartha Lakes has a Safe Streets Program where residents can request traffic reviews, including the phase timing at existing signals. As it turns out, I have spent years complaining about something for which there is an actual form. Well done, Sarah.

In my defence, complaining to the wrong audience is practically a local pastime. Spend five minutes in any community Facebook group and you’ll find potholes, snowbanks, parking grievances, and other municipal offences being diligently reported to thousands of people equally unable to fix them. My audience of one is smaller, but apparently just as effective.

There’s one complication: I don’t actually live in Kawartha Lakes. (I’m just across the border in Cannington.) But I work here, use the pool, drive its roads, support its businesses, and apparently have strong opinions about its traffic lights, but I don’t get a vote in the upcoming municipal election.

Whether my grievance can be submitted is something I still need to investigate. But this small rabbit hole made me realize how much time we spend complaining about the everyday workings of our community without figuring out who can do something about them.

Maybe that’s worth thinking about during an election month.

Voting is one way people participate in local government, although apparently not one most are particularly good at. In the 2022 Kawartha Lakes municipal election, voter turnout was just shy of 33 per cent. Roughly two out of every three eligible voters didn’t cast a ballot.

And yet, judging by any local Facebook group, we’re certainly not short on opinions about how our communities are run.

Casting a ballot matters, but so do the actions we take between elections. Maybe being engaged in your community is as simple as finally directing your complaint somewhere more useful than a Facebook group, or in my case, my husband’s phone.

I still don’t know whether my early morning advance green can be changed. Maybe there’s a perfectly good reason for it. But after years of complaining, I’ve at least figured out I’ve been calling the wrong department.