Steeles Avenue

Steeles Avenue
Major junctions
West end:	Milborough Townline
East end:	Scarbough Pickering Townline
Location
Major cities:	Toronto
Highway system
	Nearby arterial roads

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 Greater Toronto Area from Milborough Townline in Halton Region east to the Scarborough-Pickering limit. It runs for 38.75 km (24.08 mi) within Toronto, between Albion Road and the border with Pickering. It is named after J. C. Steele, who owned a tavern on the street where it intersects with Yonge Street.

[edit] Route description

Steeles Avenue West, viewed from the railway bridge which crosses above the road.

Steeles Avenue is a two-lane rural road east of York Regional Road 69 (Ninth Line). It becomes a four lane suburban road with bicycle lanes on each side from Kennedy Road to Markham Road, six lanes from Kennedy to Victoria Park Avenue, and eight lanes from Victoria Park to Highway 404. The area consists of parklands in the east end, a mix of commercial and residential in the middle, and industrial zonings 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.

East of the Toronto-Pickering Town Line, it becomes Taunton Road.

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 Street (former Highway 10). It runs through Brampton and into the Halton Region town of Milton. After breaking at Appleby Line atop the Niagara Escarpment due to the presence of the Crawford Lake Conservation Area, the road resumes just east of Guelph Line and continues until the Milborough Townline on the boundary between Milton and Hamilton.

[edit] Public transit

Steeles Avenue, near its intersection with Warden Avenue.

The road is served predominantly by TTC bus routes 53 Steeles East and 60 Steeles West. Both routes turn away from Steeles upon approaching Yonge Street. There are several routes serving the portions of the road, including 7 Bathurst, 17 Birchmount, 25 Don Mills, 35A and 35C Jane as well as 35E Jane Express, 37 and 37D Islington, 41 and 41B Keele, 43 Kennedy, 51 Leslie, 57 Midland, 84A and 84D Sheppard West, 97, 97B and 97C Yonge, 98 Willowdale-Senlac, 105C Dufferin North, 117 Alness, 160A Bathurst North, 165, 165D and 165F Weston Road North, and 191 Highway 27 Rocket. York Region Transit routes that run along Steeles include 3 (York University), 10, 88, 12, and 27 (Highway 27).^[1]

Work is underway to extend the Yonge-University-Spadina Line through York University and into Vaughan, which would include a Steeles West station. MoveOntario 2020 also includes plans to extend the Yonge Line north and add a station at Yonge and Steeles.

In Peel Region, Brampton Transit and Mississauga Transit operate several routes that travel along Steeles:

Brampton

11 Steeles
40 Central Industrial (short section)
10 South Industrial (short section)
4/4A Chinguacousy
51 Steeles West
3 McLaughlin
8 Centre
52 McMurchy
53A/B James Potter

Mississauga

103 Hurontario Express

Mississauga Transit routes and Brampton Transit routes (3, 4, 4A, 8, 11, 51, 52, 53A and 53B) connect to Shoppers World Terminal at Shoppers World Mall at the northwest corner of Main Street South and Steeles Avenue West. Steeles Avenue East will be made the third arterial for Brampton's Züm bus rapid transit.

In Halton Region, Milton Transit operates a single route on a short stretch of Steeles Avenue:

1 Woodward/Maple

[edit] Canadian Automobile Association rating

Steeles Avenue was listed by the CAA as the "worst road in October" for 2006, and as the fifth worst road in October 2007. In October 2008, it was again crowned the worst road in Ontario.^[2] 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".^[3]

[edit] Landmarks

Landmarks and notable sites along Steeles from west to east

Landmark	Cross street	Notes
Crawford Lake Conservation Area	Appleby Line	Interrupts Steeles between Appleby and Guelph Line
Rattlesnake Point	Milton
Shoppers World Brampton	Hurontario
Bramalea GO Station	Bramalea Rd
Wild Water Kingdom	Finch Ave	Canada's largest water-based fun park
Dalziel Barn	Jane St	Historic structure
Black Creek Pioneer Village	Jane St
York University	Keele St	Toronto's second largest university
York Stadium	Keele St
Centerpoint Mall	Yonge St
Steeles VIVA station	Yonge St
Brebeuf College School	Bayview Ave
Esna-Steeles VIVA station	Esna
Pacific Mall	Kennedy
Market Village	Kennedy
Splendid China Tower	Kennedy
Milliken GO Station	Kennedy
Cedar Brae Golf & Country Club	Staines Rd