Steeles Avenue


Steeles Avenue is an east-west street that forms the northern city limit of Toronto and the southern limit of York Region, Ontario, Canada. It stretches 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 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. Through Peel and 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 street is named after Thomas Steele, the first proprietor of the Green Bush Inn on the northwest corner of the street's intersection with Yonge Street in Thornhill. Thomas Steele also previously managed an Inn in Bond Head, Ontario. The street's name originally contained an apostrophe, a suggestive of Steele's possession of the inn and land around the intersection, but it was dropped by the mid-20th century.
Steels in Scarborough was once referred to as Scarborough Town Line from 1850 to 1953. Prior to 1967, Steeles Avenue was named Upper Base Line in Halton County.
A stretch of Steeles Avenue will be widened from east of Tapscott Road to just east of Ninth Line from 2020 to 2024.

Route description

The eastern portion of the road begins at Scarborough-Pickering Town Line/York-Durham Line, although east of the town line, the road continues as Taunton Road or Durham Regional Road 4.
Steeles Avenue is a two-lane rural road till York Regional Road 69. It becomes a four lane suburban road with bicycle lanes on each side from Markham Road to Kennedy Road, six lanes from Kennedy to Victoria Park Avenue, and eight lanes from Victoria Park to Highway 404. The Toronto-York Region portion of the road is maintained by Toronto. As a result, limited planning authority is granted to the City of Toronto over York Region for lands that is within of Steeles Avenue; formalized through a 1974 agreement between the City of Toronto and York Region.
West of Albion Road, Steeles Avenue continues into Peel Region, where it is also designated as Peel Regional Road 15. Like the section in Toronto, Steeles Avenue in Brampton has east-west segments, this time on either side of Hurontario and Main Streets. It runs through Brampton and into Halton Region, where it is also designated as Halton Regional Road 8, through the town of Milton, ending at Appleby Line. Originally, the road had a second section west of the height of the Niagara Escarpment, 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.
The area consists of parklands in the east end, a mix of commercial and residential in the middle, and industrial zones near the west end. Like many other east-west arterial roads within Toronto and York Region, Steeles is divided into an east and west segment by Yonge Street.

Public transit

Toronto and York Region
.
The road is served predominantly by TTC bus routes 53 Steeles East and 60 Steeles West. Both routes turn south at Yonge Street to terminate at 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 two overnight Blue Night routes, 353 and 360. YRT route 88 also passes a short portion of Steeles West.
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, which was named after the nearby Black Creek Pioneer Village heritage museum. Unlike TTC-contracted bus routes however, no extra fare is charged when crossing Steeles on the subway, due the difficulty of implementing a payment-on-exit system. MoveOntario 2020 also includes plans to extend the Yonge branch north and add a station at Steeles.
Brampton
In Brampton, Brampton Transit routes 11 Steels, 51 Hereford, and 511 Züm Steels 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. Route 51 Hereford serves the route west of Brampton Gateway Terminal to Mississauga Road. In addition, several other routes run along it for shorter stretches.
Milton
In Milton, Milton Transit operates 2 routes that run along part of Steeles Avenue: 1 Industrial and 2 Main. Route 2 runs between Lawson Road and Thompson Road before going south. 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.

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. 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".

Landmarks

Landmarks and notable sites along Steeles from west to east
LandmarkCross streetNotesImage
Crawford Lake Conservation AreaGuelph LineFormer separate section of road west of Guelph Line now known as Conservation Road
Rattlesnake PointAppleby Line, Guelph LineRoad now officially begins at Appleby Line
Toronto Premium OutletsTrafalgar RoadFirst Premium Outlets Center in Canada
Sheridan College-Davis CampusMcLaughlin RoadSheridan’s largest campus, educating nearly 8,000 students.
Shoppers World BramptonHurontario StreetRoad becomes Steeles West and Steeles East
Bramalea GO StationBramalea Road
Wet 'n' Wild TorontoFinch Avenue WestCanada's largest waterpark
Black Creek Pioneer VillageJane Street
Pioneer Village stationNorthwest Gate
York UniversityKeele Street, Founders Road, Murray Ross ParkwayToronto's second largest university
Centerpoint MallYonge StreetFormerly Towne and Countrye Square
Brebeuf College SchoolConacher Drive
Pacific MallKennedy Roadlargest indoor Chinese Asian mall in North America
Market VillageKennedy Road, Redlea AvenueCurrently closed on March 1, 2018. To be replaced by Remington Centre
Splendid China MallKennedy Road, Redlea AvenueFormer Canadian Tire store
Milliken GO StationOld Kennedy Road, Silverstar BoulevardStation moved across the street from Markham to Toronto
Cedar Brae Golf & Country ClubStaines RoadRoad enters Rouge Park. Formerly Cedar Brook Golf and Country Club c. 1922
Menno-Reesor House Littles RoadHome and barn will be renovated as part of the Toronto Wildlife Centre development