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Re Shep, Wilson, Finch (which used to stop at Islington): just a collision between 2 grids at the Humber. Same reason why Lawrence doesn't relate to Dixon, Eglinton didn't relate to Richview before they were connected up, Bloor did its funny curve thing at the Humber, etc. (Interesting how in N Etobicoke there was apparently no true E-W concession road btw/Dixon and Steeles...)
 
Towered said:
Wow, I had no idea about that, Transportfan! Very interesting bit of history! I've always been very frustrated by the lack of east-west road connections in Rexdale and wondered what the city was thinking. Why was this connection never built? Also, you wouldn't happen to know why Sheppard suddenly stops at Weston, would you?
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1. From what I heard, the Wilson/Rexdale link wasn't built because ppl didn't want the road through the valley.

2. I would imagine Sheppard ends because of the big valley where the 2 branches of the Humber converge. I always find it strange that Sheppard is often seen as the primary suburban arterial in the north of the city given how it prematurely it ends in the west.

There are other "fantasy" through roads you could image, such as a St. Clair as long as Eglinton (which was originally no longer than St. Clair, but was extended) running further west by incorporating Rathburn, Burnhamthorpe (the Mississauga section), and further east by a viaduct across the Don connecting to a renamed O'Conner.
 
Transportfan said:
Although (few ppl know this) Rexdale was planned to connect to Wilson via the creek valley, which is why Albion had the unusual 2-bridge split over the Humber, before traffic both ways was routed over the newer 4-lane bridge that aimed for the valley (and Rexdale Blvd.) If you have ever heard of Bergamont Rd, that is where the link would have ran. If you're ever in the area, you notice that it's 4 lanes east of Islington and ends at a dead end just east of a small street.
Click to expand...

Now that really is interesting. Looking at GoogleMaps, you can really envision it. It's funny, because just last summer I was on that street as I left Rexdale Mall (after visiting a site showing what it had looked like for years, till it was recently torn down and replaced), and I remembered thinking what an oddly wide road Bergamont was to just suddenly died out like that. Makes more sense now.

With the divergent bridges over the Humber, do you know what the fate of Albion Road would have been under this scheme?
 
Not sure about that, but it probably would have made a right coming southbound and ended at a T intersection past the church.
 
Either that, or a Kingston-Danforth-type split. (In fact, before the older Albion bridge over the Humber was pedestrianized, the curious lane split here--and the present bend in Albion's path--was meant to accomodate such an intersection.)
 
That's fascinating! Any idea if it's going to go through? We might be just weeks away from the old overpass becoming history.
 
Speaking of St Clair, can anyone else think of a street that is that incredibly disrupted, but retains the same name on both sides? I can see why they do it because it's the same concession, but it's rather strange in my mind that it did happen that way.
 
I mean a major street. Walmer though is a good example of a local street that breaks up way too many times... I remember getting incredibly lost looking for an address on there (before Google Maps days!)
 
Dufferin. Breaks twice - once at the jog, the second time at Downsview.

Keele breaks once between St. Clair and Rogers, and then has a jog at Eglinton and Trethewey.

And strangely, southeast of Lawrence and Caledonia, there's a section of Lansdowne Avenue that follows where Lansdowne might have gone if it continued that far north.
 
Leslie Street.

Woodbine Avenue too - although now each piece is in a different municipality.

Lawrence Avenue East.

In Mississauga; the Queensway. In Oakville; Burnhamthorpe.

Etobicoke/Vaughan: Kipling Avenue.

It's always about the ravines, and they're always on the same ROW...

42
 
Then there's all those roads at the Brampton/Mississauga border that no longer link. Creditview Road is the best example, now broken several times though the two. Even Second Line West, broken at the south end into newly-renamed streets, has remnants on both sides of 407/New Derry Road with the original name.

McCowan Road in Scarborough.

And can't forget Finch and even Sheppard Avenue at the Scarborough-Pickering border (the part of Sheppard between the curve south and Kingston Road was once known as the Lansing Cut-Off).
 
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