Got a few minutes, buddy?

Great. Just need to leave my truck in the curb lane for a while. Don’t worry, I’ll make it quick.

Hope you don’t mind sharing the other lane while I use this one to put up some new ads.

And could you let those buses squeeze in? I need to park as close as I can to that transit shelter, in case I need a different screwdriver.

Hey, no need to get snippy about it. This is really important, OK?

If the guy who created a traffic jam at the start of rush hour last Thursday could have talked to the drivers he held up, it may have sounded a lot like that.

We were on Morningside Ave. at 3.30 p.m. when we drove into gridlock approaching Lawrence Ave., a highly unusual event along a stretch of street we often travel.

Traffic was bumper-to-bumper for nearly two blocks, with TTC buses trying to merge with traffic already forced into the inner lane.

As we got close to the intersection, we expected to see an accident. Imagine our dismay when we spotted an Astral Out of Home truck parked in front of a transit shelter on the southeast corner, with pylons around it.

The driver was changing the ads in the end panels of the shelter, oblivious to the calamity. Or else he didn’t care, placing greater value on his convenience than the problems he was making.

Buses had to pick up and let off riders before they got to the TTC stop, and then try to squeeze into the inside lane just south of the intersection, which made the backup even worse.

We pulled over and watched the bedlam for about 10 minutes, until the Astral guy picked up his pylons and went on his merry way.

It had us wondering how anyone could be so dense and inconsiderate, or if the city or Astral requires its staff to find a place to park where they won’t hold up rush hour traffic while changing ads.

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STATUS: Steve Johnston, who deals with media for transportation services, said “there are rules,” but no specific policy about blocking traffic during rush hour to change ads in shelters. “That’s one of the things we need to talk about,” he said. “We’ll discuss this with Astral to make sure they aren’t impacting traffic.” That conversation should happen ASAP.