Toronto, the most populous city in Canada, eventually departed from the transportation path that most American cities took.    It has a distinctly different urban character, in part due to its comprehensive public transportation network and absence of cross-town freeways.   A mix of old and new, Toronto's downtown is defined by modern skyscrapers as well as the residential neighborhoods of Old Toronto like The Annex, Forest Hills and Yorkville.  It also boasts several ethnic neighborhoods including Little Italy, Little India and two Chinatowns.  In recent years, downtown Toronto has seen widespread high-rise condominium construction that followed a real estate boom [12].  The fact that so many Torontonians continue to live downtown enhances its pedestrian qualities and the success of public transit there. 

City for Pedestrians

Toronto has a thriving downtown that caters to pedestrians.  In fact, it recently became the first North American city to adopt a Pedestrian Charter enforcing the rights of pedestrians and formally planning walkable streets [1].

In an interview with Jane Jacobs, who permanently settled in Toronto in 1970, urban thinker James Howard Kunstler contrasts Toronto with American cities:

 “In Toronto you see office buildings every bit as hideous and grandiose as in America, and the same overly broad streets, poorly furnished with medians, trees, and other urban decor considered impediments to express motoring. But, despite these shortcomings, Toronto is alive. Its downtown streets are teeming with people. Multitudes of them actually live in the city center in apartment buildings and houses, and the sidewalks are jammed, in some places until late at night. The public realm, where the buildings meet the sidewalk, is activated.” [2]

Jacobs also praised recent progress in her city:  “Our downtown keeps getting better all the time. Even the sidewalks are being widened here and there. Instead of gas stations, you can hardly find a gas station anymore. Buildings have been put in, and often very nice buildings. And there’s lots of people living downtown now. “

Many of the older neighborhoods and inner suburbs are pedestrian oriented by nature.  The Distillery, Toronto's official historic district, was converted to a pedestrian-only cultural village in 2003.  The neighborhood is paved with brick and lined with boutiques and restaurants; chain businesses are forbidden. 

Expressways

Toronto’s history of expressway construction proves that individual transportation projects greatly influence the overall direction of a city.  While Toronto did build freeways, their scope was limited and several ambitious plans were never realized. 
As a result, light rail and other forms of public transit remained viable. 

The earliest expressways were constructed from the 1930’s to the 1950’s.  These arteries, which connected Toronto to neighboring cities, are called “Provincial” roadways because they are owned and operated by the province of Ontario.  They include Queen Elizabeth Way, considered the first freeway in North America.    Although these roads spelled the demise of Ontario’s intercity railways [3], they never cut through the city itself.  More benign than modern American freeways, they featured intersections, traffic circles and rail crossings, as well as sculptures and meticulous landscaping.

Metropolitan Toronto (“Metro”), a new government body that served the greater Toronto area, initiated a more ambitious stage of freeway building in the mid 1950’s.  Given the increasing dependence on the automobile, Metro quickly devised plans to criss-cross the city with elevated, at-grade and depressed freeways.  Had the network been fully realized, it would have damaged longstanding neighborhoods. The first two projects were completed nearly in full:  the Gardiner Expressway (which connected the center city with Queen Elizabeth Way) and the Don Valley Parkway (which follows the scenic Don River valley and links the northeast suburbs).  There was little public resistance to their construction because they followed natural corridors [3] and did not require widespread demolition of private property.  

The next five freeways planned for metropolitan Toronto — the Spadina, Crosstown,  Scarborough, Hamilton and Christie-Clinton expressways — were much more controversial.   The most famous of these was the Spadina Expressway , which spurred a classic freeway revolt because it was slated to run through historic areas of Old Toronto like The Annex, where Jane Jacobs lived.  With Jacob's help, the Stop Spadina campaign succeeded in eventually canceling the entire 5-freeway project [4]. 

To date, no further freeways have been built in Toronto proper, although the province of Ontario continues to construct suburban freeways. 

Transit

Toronto has the third most heavily used public transportation system in North America  behind New York City and Mexico City [5].  Operated by the public transport authority known as the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), it features an extensive network of subways, light rail, streetcars and buses. 


Subways

In 1946, a referendum began the construction of a subway system in Toronto.  The  first line, completed in 1954,  ran along Yonge street and connected the railway’s Union Station to the streetcar suburbs, replacing the existing streetcar line.  Subway construction involved a “cut-and-cover” tunnel in which a shallow trench is topped with a strongly supported roof [6].   Expansions and new lines followed, such as the east-west Bloor-Danforth line and the University line. Even during the freeway boom of the 1960’s, public transit was considered essential for Toronto.  For example, the controversial Spadina Expressway was designed with a subway line down its median, which was later built into the completed freeway stub known as Allen Road. 

After the Spadina Expressway was canceled, funding for transit was increased [5]. The plan in the 1970’s was to abandon most of the city’s streetcar lines and replace low-volume routes with buses and high-traffic routes with subways, primarily to the outer suburbs.  However, mounting costs for these suburban subway routes led the city to reconsider its “streetcar abandonment plan”:  several existing streetcar lines were retained and a new streetcar network was built in the 1980’s. 

Toronto’s rapid transit system consists of four electric rail lines:  three subway lines and one RT (rapid transit) line.   The 6-stop Scarborough RT line is mainly above ground and employs smaller, lower-capacity cars than the subway lines.  The system currently covers over 42 miles, and expansions of the RT-type lines are planed.   In 2009, Toronto received $950 million for a light rail expansion along the Sheppard line that will run 15 kilometers into the eastern suburbs.  It will be built on a raised median with car traffic and bike lanes on either side [7].

The Toronto Streetcar System

Toronto is one of the few cities in North America to retain part of its original streetcar network.  In the 1950’s, buses were the wave of the future and most American and Canadian cities (including Montreal, Edmonton, Ottawa and Vancouver) banished their streetcars [8].   Although the Toronto Transit Commission did plan to replace streetcars with subway and bus lines, community activism in the early 1970’s helped to turn the tide against streetcar abandonment.  

Today, streetcars are a popular (and crowded) transit choice within downtown Toronto.   Like buses, they are a local service with frequent stops, compared to the subway’s limited, fixed stops .  Most routes are shared with car traffic although some lines operate within their own rights-of-way.   Underground connections integrate the streetcar network with the subway system.

Toronto’s persistence can be a model for other cities.  At first, a planned streetcar line along Spadina Avenue was shelved because businesses feared that the loss of parking spaces would mean certain doom.  But in 1997, the city reconsidered:  a streetcar line replaced all of the parking in the commercial district.  Business is booming, and most shoppers did not arrive in a car [9]. 

Although most of Toronto’s streetcars are vintage “Red Rockets”, the city is in the midst of purchasing modern low-floor Bombardier streetcars with double the capacity (260 riders compared to the current 130) [10]. 

The Transit City

The Transit City is a plan, launched in 2007, to further expand and modernize Toronto’s public transit system.  The core of the plan will establish 7 new Light Rail Transit corridors.  

Bicycles

While Toronto is not considered a world-class bicycling city,  it aims to move in that direction.  The Toronto Bike Plan was unveiled in 2001 as a 10-year effort to create a continuous network of bike lanes and bikeways that would also link with the transit network [11].   Unfortunately, the program has been underfunded and is far behind schedule.

ALSO ON THE LIVABLE STREETS NETWORK

• Streetsblog: Eyes on the Street: Parking Density in Toronto.  February 4, 2008.

• Streetsblog: Toronto Cycling Activists Build Their Own Bike Network.  June 22, 2007.
  

• Streetsblog:  Toronto Politician on Bike Lanes and the Future of Cycling.  April 19, 2007.
• Streetsblog:  Mayor Says Toronto Will be North America's Greenest City.  March 27, 2007.

REFERENCES

Each source is referred to by the same number every time it is cited. Please keep citation style consistent.

[1] Toronto Pedestrian Charter.  City of Toronto Transportation Services

[2] Kustler, James Howard.  Jane Jacobs Interviewed by Jim Kunstler.  Metropolis Magazine.  March 2001

[3] Marshall, Sean.  The Expressways of Toronto:  Built and Unbuilt. Transit Toronto.  July 12, 2009.

[4] Spadina Expressway.  Wikipedia.

[5] History of the Toronto Transit Commission (pdf).  Get Toronto Moving.

[6]  Tunnel.  Wikipedia.

[7] Kalinowski, Tess.  $950 Million for New Light Rail Line.  The Toronto Star.  May 16, 2009. 

[8] FAQ – Streetcars.  Transit Toronto.

[9] White, Murray.  The Great Toronto Streetcar Debate.  The Toronto Star.  July 15, 2007. 

[10] Haynes, Allison.  Toronto’s New Streetcar: Sleeker, Lower, Longer.  The National Post.  April 24, 2009.

[11] City of Toronto Bike Plan. 

[12] Toronto.  Wikipedia. 

PICTURE REFERENCES

Pictures are cited in the order they appear above. Please keep citation style consistent.

[1] Old Chinatown in Toronto.  Photo by Christopher Chan via Flickr.

[2] The Distillery, Toronto. Photo by **Mary** via Flickr.

[3] Toronto Subway.  Photo by RonaldWong via Flickr.  

[4] Vintage Toronto Streetcar.  Photo by OliverN5 via Flickr.

FURTHER READING

• Spacing Magazine publishes quarterly on issues related to public space in Toronto in order to "help our readers understand and take ownership of Toronto's urban landscapre" - http://www.spacing.ca/

PODCASTS

Spacing Magazine produces a bi-weekly podcast entitled SPACING RADIO hosted by David Michael Lamb who is also a news anchor for CBC National Radio News.  Similar to the magazine, the podcasts focus on issues related to the urban landscape of Toronto along with featuring music from a Toronto band throughout each podcast - http://spacing.ca/radio/about-the-show/

KEYWORDS

transit, subways, light rail, streetcars, pedestrians, freeways, freeway revolt, historic preservation, Jane Jacobs