Steeles Avenue

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Steeles Avenue
Scarborough-Pickering Townline / York-Durham Line (Continues as Taunton Road)
Nearby arterial roads
← Finch Avenue;
Derry Road
Steeles Avenue
Highway 7; Queen Street
 →

Steeles Avenue is an east–west street that forms the northern city limit of Toronto and the southern limit of York Region in Ontario, Canada. It stretches 77.3 km (48.0 mi) across the western and central Greater Toronto Area from Appleby Line in Milton in the west to the Toronto-Pickering city limits in the east, where it continues east into Durham Region as Taunton Road, which itself extends 58 km (36 mi) across the length of Durham Region to its boundary with Northumberland County.

York Region refers to Steeles Avenue as Regional Road 95 but the designation is strictly internal and there are no signs posted; as the street was always owned and maintained by the City of Toronto (succeeding

Halton
Regions, the street is signed as Peel Road 15 and Halton Road 8, respectively.

The combination of Steeles and Taunton Road is the only arterial road to cross almost the entire Greater Toronto Area without breaks or turnoffs.

History

The Green Bush Inn at Yonge and Steeles; circa 1920

The street is named after Thomas Steele (1806-1877),

Bond Head, Ontario
. The street's name originally contained an apostrophe (before the 'S'), a suggestive of Steele's possession of the inn and land around the intersection, but it was dropped by the mid-20th century.

Steeles in Scarborough was once referred to as Scarborough Town Line from 1850 to 1953. The section west of Yonge (bordering Vaughan) was called Vaughan Town Line. Prior to 1967, Steeles Avenue was named Upper Base Line (Lower Base Line being Eglinton Avenue, which is still named as such) in Halton County.[4]

Steeles became a

Canadian National Halton Subdivision.[6]

A 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) stretch of Steeles Avenue will be widened from east of Tapscott Road to just east of Ninth Line from 2020 to 2024.[7]

Route description

Steeles Avenue viewed from Yonge Street
Route of Steeles Ave. in Brampton

Starting from the east, the road begins at Scarborough-

Durham Regional Road 4
. Taunton Road continues as is until reaching Highway 35, where it becomes Concession Road 6, then after a turn, will become East Town Line, then to 6th Line, before ending at County Road 65.

Steeles is a two-lane rural road until east of

Albion Road. Like many other east–west arterial roads within Toronto and York Region, Steeles is divided into east and west segments by Yonge Street
.

Although on the boundary between the two municipalities, the Toronto-York Region portion of the road is maintained by Toronto. As a result, limited planning authority is granted to Toronto over York Region for lands that is within 45 metres (148 ft) of Steeles; formalized through a 1974 agreement between Metropolitan Toronto (succeeded by the amalgamated City of Toronto) and York Region. For instance, Toronto city councillor David Shiner invoked the 1974 agreement to veto a proposed condo development that would replace the Shops on Steeles mall.[8] Due to an ongoing dispute on the widening and maintenance costs of Steeles, York Region's proposed Markham Bypass to Morningside Avenue has been stalled.[9][7]

Highway 404 southbound approaching interchange with Steeles Avenue, circa 2006.

The areas around the street in Toronto and York Region consists of farmland (within the Rouge National Urban Park) in the east, a mix of commercial and residential in the middle, and industrial zones near the west.

West of Albion Road, Steeles Avenue continues into

Halton Regional Road 8, through the town of Milton, crossing Highway 401
(no interchange) and ending at Appleby Line at a T intersection.

Originally, the road had a second section west of the height of the Niagara Escarpment (the location of the Crawford Lake Conservation Area), which ran from just east of Guelph Line west to the Milborough Townline on the boundary between Milton and Hamilton, but this section was renamed to Conservation Road and is thus no longer part of Steeles.

Public transit

Toronto and York Region

Warden Avenue
.

The road is served predominantly by the

Finch Station on the eastern portion of the Line 1 Yonge–University subway line. There are also two counterpart express bus routes during the rush hours, 953 Steeles East Express and 960 Steeles West Express, as well as one overnight Blue Night route, the 353 Steeles Blue Night. YRT
routes 88 and 91 also passes a short portion of Steeles West and Steeles East, respectively.

Several TTC bus routes provide service on north-south arterial roads in York Region that continue north from Toronto on a contractual basis. Steeles forms the fare zone boundary, and extra fare is required for bus riders to continue across it.

On December 17, 2017, an extension of the western portion of the Line 1 subway up to Vaughan was opened, passing through York University, with a station at Steeles called

Pioneer Village. The station was named after the nearby Black Creek Pioneer Village heritage museum (as opposed to simply having a West designation as is the practice on most of the western section of the line). Unlike TTC-contracted bus routes however, no extra fare is charged when crossing Steeles on the subway, due to the difficulty of implementing a payment-on-exit system.[11] MoveOntario 2020
also includes plans to extend the Yonge subway line north and add a station at Steeles.

Brampton

Steeles Avenue in Brampton, near Shoppers World Brampton

Brampton Transit routes 11 Steeles, 51 Hereford, and 511 Züm Steeles (bus rapid transit) run along much of the street in Brampton. The 11A branch of route 11 serves the street from Brampton Gateway Terminal to Humber College, while limited trips along route 11 and all 511 Züm Steels trips run from Lisgar GO Station to Humber College.[12][13] Route 51 Hereford serves the route west of Brampton Gateway Terminal to Mississauga Road.[14] In addition, several other routes run along it for shorter stretches.

Milton

Milton Transit operates 2 routes that run along part of Steeles Avenue in Milton: 1 Industrial and 2 Main. Route 2 runs between Lawson Road and Thompson Road before going south.[15] Route 1 is split into 3 branches, 1A, 1B and 1C. Routes 1A and 1B are separate directions in a loop, running on Steeles between Industrial Drive and Ontario Street and Thompson Road and Esquesing Line while route 1C operates on the section of Steeles between Martin Street and Ontario Street.[15]

Canadian Automobile Association rating

Steeles Avenue was listed by the CAA as the "worst road in Ontario" for 2006, and as the fifth-worst road in October 2007. In October 2008, it was again crowned the worst road in Ontario.[16] Reasons include potholes and general quality of surface. Soon after the results of CAA's survey were made public, some parts of the road between Dufferin Street and Bayview Avenue were resurfaced. The results of the 2009 survey listed Steeles as Ontario's worst road, for the second year in a row.

However, in 2010, Steeles Avenue was resurfaced from Yonge Street to Markham Road, with the funds coming from the federal infrastructure stimulus program, and the CAA named it the "Best Road in Ontario".[17]

Landmarks

Landmarks and notable sites along Steeles from west to east

Landmark Cross street Notes Image
Crawford Lake Conservation Area Guelph Line Former separate section of road west of Guelph Line now known as Conservation Road
Rattlesnake Point Appleby Line, Guelph Line Road now officially begins at Appleby Line
Toronto Premium Outlets Trafalgar Road First
Premium Outlets Center
in Canada
Sheridan College-Davis Campus McLaughlin Road Sheridan's largest campus, educating nearly 8,000 students.
Shoppers World Brampton Hurontario Street Road becomes Steeles West and Steeles East
Bramalea GO Station Bramalea Road
Wet 'n' Wild Toronto Finch Avenue West Canada's largest waterpark
Black Creek Pioneer Village Jane Street
Pioneer Village station Northwest Gate
York University Keele Street, Founders Road, Murray Ross Parkway Toronto's second largest university
Centerpoint Mall Yonge Street Formerly Towne and Country Square
Brebeuf College School Conacher Drive
Pacific Mall Kennedy Road largest indoor Chinese Asian mall in North America
Market Village Kennedy Road, Redlea Avenue Currently closed on March 1, 2018. To be replaced by
Remington Centre
Splendid China Mall Kennedy Road, Redlea Avenue Former Canadian Tire store
Milliken GO Station Old Kennedy Road, Silverstar Boulevard Station moved across the street from Markham to Toronto
Cedar Brae Golf & Country Club
Staines Road Road enters
Rouge Park
. Formerly Cedar Brook Golf and Country Club c. 1922
Menno-Reesor House (6461 Steeles Avenue East) Littles Road Home and barn will be renovated as part of the Toronto Wildlife Centre development[18]

References

  1. ^ "Steeles Ave. route". Google Maps. Retrieved April 2, 2017.
  2. ^ "THE WAY WE WERE: History at the crossroads".
  3. ^ Toronto Archives photo
  4. ^ "Canadian Champion (Milton, ON), 7 Dec 1966, p. 11".
  5. ^ Colton 1990, pp. 71–72.
  6. ^ "Brampton's historic Churchville village turns 200". Pam Douglas. Brampton Guardian. July 28, 2015. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  7. ^ a b "Steeles Avenue Widening and Morningside Avenue Extension". 22 November 2017.
  8. ^ Alcoba, Natalie (26 March 2011). "Who's afraid of Shops on Steeles?". National Post. Postmedia Network Inc. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  9. ^ "City moves towards widening Steeles Avenue in northeast Scarborough".
  10. ^ "REGION OF PEEL REGIONAL ROAD MAP" (PDF). Peel Region. 2 June 2016. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  11. ^ James Bow. "A History of Subways on Bloor and Queen Streets: Celebrating the Subway's first stop in the suburbs". Transit Toronto.
  12. ^ "Route 11/11A Steeles Schedule" (PDF). brampton.ca. City of Brampton. 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  13. ^ "Route 511 Züm Steeles Schedule" (PDF). brampton.ca. City of Brampton. 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  14. ^ "Route 51 Hereford Schedule" (PDF). brampton.ca. City of Brampton. 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  15. ^ a b "Transit Map" (PDF). milton.ca. Town of Milton. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  16. ^ "Ontario's Worst Roads Final Results". 2007-10-04. Archived from the original on 2007-10-06. Retrieved 2007-10-06.
  17. ^ Rush, Curtis (2010-10-28). "Federal infrastructure money resurfaced Steeles Ave. from Yonge St., to Markham Rd., which is now the Best Road in Ontario". The Star. Toronto. Retrieved 2010-10-28.
  18. ^ https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2014/sc/bgrd/backgroundfile-69799.pdf[bare URL PDF]