Dufferin Street

Dufferin Street
A Dufferin Street street sign.
Width:	Four-lanes
Location:	Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The Dufferin Gates at Exhibition Place marks the southern extent of Dufferin Street.

Dufferin Street is a major north-south street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a concession road, two concessions (4 km) west of Yonge Street. The street starts at the foot of Lake Ontario, continues north to Toronto's northern boundary with some discontinuities and continues into York Region where it becomes York Regional Road 53. The street is named for Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, who served as Governor-General of Canada from 1872 to 1878. In 2003 and 2007, it was voted as one of "Ontario's Worst 20 Roads" in the Ontario's Worst Roads poll organized by the Canadian Automobile Association.^[1][2]

Route description

Lake to Queen Street section

The southern end of Dufferin is within the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) grounds at Dufferin Gates. North of the CNE, the east side is dominated by industrial or transitional industrial to residential buildings of Liberty Village. The west side is mostly single-family homes with one apartment building south of King Street. The neighbourhood to the west is named Parkdale. This area was developed mostly before 1900. Immediately north of Queen Street West, Dufferin was previously cut off by the railway (nicknamed the "Dufferin jog" by locals) but this jog has been removed as of November 18, 2010.

Queen Street to Eglinton Avenue section

North of Queen Street, Dufferin is primarily residential on both sides, with the large Dufferin Mall on the west side of Dufferin, south of Bloor Street. This was the former site of the Dufferin Racetrack. From Queen Street north to College Street, the neighbourhood is known as Little Portugal. North of College, and west of Dufferin is the former village of Brockton and on the east is the Dufferin Grove neighbourhood, named after the park on the east side of Dufferin. Dufferin subway station is located at Dufferin and Bloor Street on the Bloor-Danforth line.

From Bloor Street to Davenport, Dufferin is lined with homes built from the 1920s to post-World War II. The neighbourhood west of Dufferin in this area is known as Wallace Emerson, while on the east it is known as Dovercourt Park. North of Davenport, Dufferin ascends former Lake Iroquous shoreline escarpment. North of the escarpment, the street continues to be residential on both sides north to Eglinton Avenue West.

Dufferin Street is eight lanes wide in the vicinity of Highway 401.

Eglinton to Downsview section

North of Eglinton, it becomes a six-lane arterial road through industrial and low-density commercial lands of the former North York. The regional shopping centre of Yorkdale Shopping Centre is located at Dufferin and Highway 401. The sections from Eglinton into York Region was originally Vaughan Road.

North of Wilson Avenue section

North of Wilson Avenue, Dufferin is interrupted by Downsview Airport and Allen Road, the latter of which feeds Dufferin north of Kennard Avenue (formerly Wilson Heights Boulevard). North of Steeles Avenue, Dufferin Street continues into Vaughan and is also known as York Regional Road 53, crossing Davis Drive (Hwy 9) into Glenville Road, then continuing north before ending just north of Graham Sideroad in King.

A broken section of Dufferin Street runs semi parallel with Allen Road from Kennard to Sheppard Avenue due east. This section is a residential street and ends in a cul-de-sac just south of Kennard. A lost section of Dufferin Street south of Sheppard Avenue is now within Downsview subway station.

The Dufferin Jog was recently removed at Queen Street, providing drivers with a direct continuation of Dufferin Street

Dufferin jog

The intersection of Dufferin Street and Queen Street West also intersects with the main railway line from downtown to the northwest. While an underpass was built for Queen Street, one was not built for Dufferin Street to connect it a block north of Queen, so it was closed to all traffic. The block that was closed went around the closed section to Peel (east-west) and Gladstone (north-south), which became 'de facto' sections of Dufferin. The detour was known locally as the Dufferin Jog.

This jog was finally eliminated in 2010 with the construction of a four-lane underpass beneath the railroad track, including public art and an amphitheatre styled park with tiered gardens at the southwest corner of the underpass. This project was approved by city council in 2007, and work on extending the roadway began on July 2009.^[3] The underpass was opened on November 18, 2010.^[4]

Italian community

Dufferin Street has long been an important thoroughfare for Toronto's Italian community. An Italian neighbourhood developed around Dufferin and Davenport in the 1890s and soon became known as "little Little Italy". In the 1950s, Italian Canadians from the main Little Italy around College Street and Grace Street headed northwest up Dufferin past St. Clair Avenue and were joined by a new wave of immigrants from Italy. By the 1960s, the Dufferin-St. Clair area (known as Corso Italia) had supplanted College-Grace Little Italy as the centre of Toronto's Italian community.

Public transit usage

The 29 Dufferin bus route runs from the lake shore along the full length of Dufferin to the Wilson Station. When the CNE is not operating, the Dufferin bus continues south within Exhibition Place to the Bathurst streetcar loop. The bus connects with the Toronto Bloor-Danforth Subway at Dufferin Station and the Wilson Station is on the Yonge-University-Spadina line.

The 29 Dufferin bus was the busiest bus route in the TTC in 2007 and 2008, with an average 43,600 riders each weekday.^[5] As of 2010 it was the 5th busiest route, with an average of 39,700 riders per weekday.^[6] Buses run every 2 to 10 minutes on the route, depending on the time of day.

The 105 Dufferin North bus route runs north from Downsview Station on the Yonge-University-Spadina subway line along Allen Road and Dufferin Street. North of Steeles Avenue, it effectively becomes a York Region Transit route, and additional YRT fares apply.^[7]

References

1. ^ "Ontario's worst municipal roads – top 20" (PDF). Canadian Automobile Association. 2007. http://www.worstroads.ca/inc/db2file.asp?fileid=4. Retrieved 2007-12-26. 
2. ^ "Top 20 Worst Municipal Roads in Ontario for 2007". Canadian Automobile Association. 2007. http://www.worstroads.ca/rankings/roadfinal.asp. Retrieved 2007-12-26. 
3. ^ Mackenzie, Robert (2009-07-15). "Dufferin / Queen construction affects transit service this weekend". Transit Toronto. http://transit.toronto.on.ca/archives/weblog/2009/07/15-dufferin_q.shtml. Retrieved 2009-07-18. 
4. ^ McGinnis, Rick (2010-11-13). "Dufferin Underpass to replace Dufferin jog will open November 18". BlogTO. http://www.blogto.com/city/2010/11/underpass_to_replace_dufferin_jog_will_open_november_18. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
5. ^ "Operating Statistics" Toronto Transit Commission: http://www3.ttc.ca/About_the_TTC/Operating_Statistics/2008.jsp
6. ^ "Operating Statistics" Toronto Transit Commission: http://www3.ttc.ca/About_the_TTC/Operating_Statistics/2010.jsp
7. ^ "105 Dufferin North" Toronto Transit Commission: http://www3.ttc.ca/Routes/105/Northbound.jsp

External links

Google Maps of Dufferin Street

• North of Sheppard Avenue
• South of Wilson Avenue