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 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 the Green Bush Hotel on the northwest corner of the street's intersection with Yonge Street.^[1] Internally, York Region refers to Steeles Avenue as Regional Road 95

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.

Steeles Avenue is referred to as York Regional Road 95 within internal York Regional Road documents, but there is no official signage indicating this designation.

East of the Toronto-Pickering Town Line, it becomes Taunton Road or Durham Regional Road 4.

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 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.

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, 17B and 17C Birchmount, 25 Don Mills, 35A, 35B and 35C Jane, 37B Islington, 41A and 41B Keele, 43A Kennedy, 51 Leslie, 57 Midland, 97B, 97C and 97F Yonge, 98A and 98C Willowdale-Senlac, 105C Dufferin North, 117A and 117B Alness, 165, 165D and 165F Weston Road North, 191B and 191C Highway 27 Rocket, and 195 Jane Rocket. York Region Transit routes that run along Steeles include 3 (York University), 10, 88, 12, and 27 (Highway 27).^[2]

Work is underway to extend Line 1 Yonge–University through York University and into Vaughan, which will include a station to be called Pioneer Village at Steeles Avenue. 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 MiWay of Mississauga 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
• 511 Zum Steeles

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

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.^[3] 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".^[4]

Landmarks

Landmarks and notable sites along Steeles from west to east

Landmark	Cross street	Notes	Image
Crawford Lake Conservation Area	Guelph Line	Road restarts west of Guelph Line as Conservation Road
Rattlesnake Point	Appleby Line, Guelph Line	Road ends at Appleby and restarts west of Guelph Line as Conservation Road
Sheridan College-Davis Campus	McLaughlin Road	Sheridan’s largest campus, educating nearly 8,000 students.
Shoppers World Brampton	Hurontario Street	Road becomes Steeles West and Steeles East
Bramalea GO Station	Bramalea Road
Wild Water Kingdom	Finch Avenue West	Canada's largest water-based fun park
Dalziel Barn	Jane Street	Historic structure built 1809
Black Creek Pioneer Village	Jane Street
York University	Keele Street, Founders Road, Murray Ross Parkway	Toronto's second largest university
York Stadium	Murray Ross Parkway
Centerpoint Mall	Yonge Street	Formerly Towne and Countrye Square
Steeles VIVA station	Yonge Street	Street becomes Steeles East and Steeles West
Brebeuf College School	Conacher Drive
Esna-Steeles VIVA station	Esna Park Drive
Pacific Mall	Kennedy Road	largest indoor Chinese Asian mall in North America
Market Village	Kennedy Road, Redlea Avenue	To be replaced by Remington Centre
Splendid China Mall	Kennedy Road, Redlea Avenue	Former Canadian Tire store
Milliken GO Station	Old Kennedy Road, Silverstar Boulevard	Station moved from Markham to Toronto
Cedar Brae Golf & Country Club	Staines Road	Road enters Rouge Park	Formerly Cedar Brook Golf and Country Club c. 1922

References