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 is 38.75 km within Toronto, between Albion Road and the Scarborough-Pickering limit.

West of Albion Road, Steeles continues into Peel Region, where it is also known as Peel Regional Road 15. 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. East of the Toronto-Pickering Town Line, it becomes Taunton Road.

Steeles Avenue has two rural lanes east of York Regional Road 69, two lanes with a bicycle lane on each side from Kennedy Road to Markham Road, six urban 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.

It is one of the few east-west routes that has the distinction of being continuous from the Toronto/York Region to Peel Region.

Name

Steeles is named after J. C. Steele, who owned a tavern on the street where it intersects with Yonge Street.

Public transit

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 51 Leslie, 165D and 165F Keele North, 37D Islington. York Region Transit routes that run along Steeles include 3 (York University), 10, 88, 12, and 27 (Highway 27).

Ontario's Worst Road

Steeles Avenue was listed as the worst road by the CAA in October 2006, and as the fifth worst road in October 2007.cite web | title=Ontario's Worst Roads Final Results | url=http://www.worstroads.ca/rankings/ | accessdate=2007-10-06|date=2007-10-04] 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 poor condition is partly due to its location on the boundary between Toronto and York Region, although completely within Toronto, and there are frequent disputes about which municipality should maintain the road. There was a recent argument at Redlea Avenue about who should pay for the installation of a traffic light.

Attractions

* Rouge Park
* Whittamore's Farm
* Pacific Mall
* Market Village Mall
* Splendid China Tower
* Centerpoint Mall
* York University and Beatrice Ice Gardens
* Toronto Track and Field Centre
* UPS Canada Headquarters
* Black Creek Pioneer Village
* Crawford Lake Conservation Area
* Rattlesnake Point Conservation Area

References