[Edward]

It certainly does better connecting to the DVP.

 

[the lemur]

Look how beautiful the street looks here. You can't ruin it now just to connect St Clair. I once googled St Clair to see why it was not connected past Mt Pleasant and that's when I saw all the residential houses.

I've often wondered about that: are the houses there because the parts of St Clair don't connect, or do the two parts exist because the gap was filled with housing?

Why exactly are there two stretches of St Clair that are separate? Was there ever anything to connect them, like a trail through the valley?

 

[salsa]

I've often wondered about that: are the houses there because the parts of St Clair don't connect, or do the two parts exist because the gap was filled with housing?

Why exactly are there two stretches of St Clair that are separate? Was there ever anything to connect them, like a trail through the valley?

A direct connection between the two St Clairs would require a really long bridge over the valley, which is never gonna happen because it's simply not feasible or worth it. I doubt that the houses are to blame for the disconnect, although a shorter extension to perhaps Bayview would be a non starter today because of them.

 

[the lemur]

A direct connection between the two St Clairs would require a really long bridge over the valley, which is never gonna happen because it's simply not feasible or worth it.

Okay, but what was the point of giving the same name to two long roads with a huge gap between them?

 

[nfitz]

A direct connection between the two St Clairs would require a really long bridge over the valley, which is never gonna happen because it's simply not feasible or worth it.

I have fantasies that one day in the far future, it would be worthwhile having another east-west transit line, and we can extend the St. Clair streetar line in a tunnel from Mount Pleasant to the DRL station near O'Connor/Pape.

Okay, but what was the point of giving the same name to two long roads with a huge gap between them?

It was done on many roads. Look at Leslie. Chunk a Queen. Chunk at Danforth (late renamed Donlands). Chunk south of Eglinton. Chunk in the north.

Ditto for one major line east as well. Woodbine.

Even now, look at Rathburn in Mississauga. Or many other roads in the region.

 

[Dan416]

I have fantasies that one day in the far future, it would be worthwhile having another east-west transit line, and we can extend the St. Clair streetar line in a tunnel from Mount Pleasant to the DRL station near O'Connor/Pape.


It was done on many roads. Look at Leslie. Chunk a Queen. Chunk at Danforth (late renamed Donlands). Chunk south of Eglinton. Chunk in the north.

Ditto for one major line east as well. Woodbine.

Even now, look at Rathburn in Mississauga. Or many other roads in the region.

Queensway in Mississauga is another, but the western part got renamed Lincoln Green Way and Sheridan Park Dr.

 

[44 North]

Okay, but what was the point of giving the same name to two long roads with a huge gap between them?

I guess because it was always one road. Rather, one concession line lain down on a survey long before a road ever existed. Early Toronto named this concession St Clair, and early towns of East York and Scarboro probably thought it easier to merely continue the same name. Maybe because it sounds nice and they had nothing better to use; but perhaps also because it makes a good reference point – even if the valley could never logically be crossed there.

Somewhat related, this map is interesting in that it’s a very early (1788) Toronto survey with all of the concessions lacking a name. It gives a good idea of how simplistic Britain’s concession system is, and how these long straight lines shaped future development. But even with this basic sketch glossing over major inland geographic features, the lines still match up with present day arterials like Queen, Bloor, St Clair, etc; or Yonge, Bayview, Leslie, etc:

These 1878 and 1902 maps are good at showing the planning and development around the valley at/near St Clair
http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/images/maps/townshipmaps/yor-m-york-se.jpg
http://maps.library.utoronto.ca/dvhmp/Scans/G_3524_T61_1902.jpg

 

[Edward]

And yet we ended up with a mess of local roads that don't connect due to landowners subdividing willy nilly. Quite strange. They obviously never planned for a metropolis here.

 

[the lemur]

And yet we ended up with a mess of local roads that don't connect due to landowners subdividing willy nilly. Quite strange. They obviously never planned for a metropolis here.

That little chunk of Leslie way up in Leaside that nfitz mentioned has to be the weirdest example of a discontinuous section. I can't imagine that was ever really intended to be connected to the rest, and it probably got its name just from being on the alignment of the original concession.

 

[nfitz]

That little chunk of Leslie way up in Leaside that nfitz mentioned has to be the weirdest example of a discontinuous section. I can't imagine that was ever really intended to be connected to the rest, and it probably got its name just from being on the alignment of the original concession.

Leslie was always the road allowance between Concession II and Concession III east of Yonge Street. Looking at the 1880s mapping, it was only opened north of Lawrence, from Danforth to the Don (now Donlands) and the CN Tracks to the lake (Leslie). See http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/CountyAtlas/showtownship2.php?townshipid=York+North http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/CountyAtlas/showtownship2.php?townshipid=York+South+East and "1976 Land Grant" mapping at http://oldtorontomaps.blogspot.ca/2014/06/contemporary-maps-with-historical.html

If you look at the 1913 Fire Insurance Mapping in http://goadstoronto.blogspot.ca/2013/01/1913-toronto-fire-insurance-map.html on Plate 102:

That a piece of Soudan Avenue (now Parkhurst Blvd west of Laird and Research Road between Brentcliffe and Leslie) had been subdivided at this time. Presumably Leslie was named around then ... it's not that far from the piece of Leslie that was built later from Lawrence to Eglinton.

 

[Toffy]

Queensway in Mississauga is another, but the western part got renamed Lincoln Green Way and Sheridan Park Dr.

Cliff Road and Britannia Road are another two examples in Mississauga.

Relative to the size of the city, I think Mississauga takes the cake when it comes to missing links in the road network. No thanks to the airport, the 403/410-401 interchange and of course, the area of Mississauga Road south of Dundas.

 

[innsertnamehere]

edit

 

[ShonTron]

Cliff Road and Britannia Road are another two examples in Mississauga.

Relative to the size of the city, I think Mississauga takes the cake when it comes to missing links in the road network. No thanks to the airport, the 403/410-401 interchange and of course, the area of Mississauga Road south of Dundas.

Mississauga has two different concession road systems; this results in some of the missing links. Eglinton Avenue used to be known as Base Line Road; below Eglinton, the road grid is square, with Lakeshore/Royal Windsor, Queensway, Dundas, Burnhamthorpe being the east-west roads; like today's Queensway gap, Burnhamthorpe also didn't cut across the Credit Valley until major viaducts were built in the early 1980s. The north-south roads: Dixie, Cawthra, Hurontario, Mavis, Erindale Station and Erin Mills/Southdown were the north-south roads, pretty much square. North of Eglinton, and up to Steeles (the old line between Toronto and Chinguacousy Townships), a more common rectangular grid was laid out. Toronto Township was one of a very few to have two different survey plans within it.

Then again, Mississauga did plan for some missing links on its own, Second Line West (now Terry Fox) and Third Line West (Creditview) were broken up, partly replaced by Financial Drive and Mavis Road.

 

[44 North]

I'm sure it's nothing new for most, but another tidbit worth sharing about this concession/grid system, and how it relates to ‘Sauga and the GTA, is that the base lines are run parallel and perpendicular to the lake’s shoreline. For about 220km from somewhere around Napanee all the way to Brown’s Line, all lines seem to follow the same bearing. Makes sense, since the lake generally has a similar shoreline direction over that stretch. But from Dixie to Hwy 6, the concessions have a noticeably different axial orientation. The areas between where these two lines branch from one another (e.g where Mississauga meets Etobicoke) is usually pretty muddled, planning-wise. A great example is the area around K-W. I’ve heard people say that the roads are crazy there because it was an old European planning method to ward off invaders (maybe that's partially true). But it seems that it's also because KW is roughly the meeting point of a series of lines radiating perpendicularly from distant Lake Huron, Georgian Bay, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario etc.

 

[Hopkins123]

Mavis/Stavebank Rd not continuous across the QEW is a missing link as well.