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Scenes From Toronto – Explorations into the history and geography of Toronto
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Explorations into the history and geography of Toronto
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Scenes From Toronto – Explorations into the history and geography of Toronto

What is the first street in downtown Toronto recorded as a one-way street? The answer is not obvious – perhaps because the street itself is not very consequential for most travelers today. It was the first chapter in the history of Toronto’s uniquely directed roads.On July 2nd, 1901, By-Law No. 4108 prohibited “the conveyance of traffic on Leader Lane, from the south to the north.” The street ran, as it does today, between King Street and Wellington Street just west of Church Street. The reason for the ban against northbound traffic was that the lane was “too narrow for the passing of one vehicle by another.” Vehicles were defined in the law as horses, carriages, wagons, or other vehicles (other than a bicycle).The issue came about when Mr. George R. R. Cockburn raised a complaint to the mayor:“The fact that vehicles of every description are entitled to pass up and down Leader lane causes great inconvenience both to those using them and also to foot passengers, and it would be in the interests of the city that the traffic of carts and vehicles should be constrained to pass only from north to south through the lane. I may say that already two panes of glass have been broken by vehicles attempting to pass one another in so narrow a space.”Toronto Daily Star, October 9, 1900Cockburn was a Member of Parliament in Toronto and educator, who was Principal at Upper Canada College and a member of the Senate at the University of Toronto.By the spring of 1901, legislation was passed to allow Toronto to make the by-law and the Works Committee recommended the prohibition. It was given its readings in Council before being passed into law on July 2.Leader Lane was named for the Toronto Leader Newspaper, which operated between 1853 and 1878 and had its offices at 63 King Street East and 40 & 44 Colborne Street. It had the previous names of “Old Post Office Lane” and “Berczy Street.” In 1909, Leader Lane was named by the Daily Star as the narrowest way in Toronto to be properly called a street.While it is natural to think of the regulation in modern terms, this prescription of vehicles implies that automobile traffic was not the by-law’s first intention. But soon, it would be.The “horseless age” was about to begin in Toronto. In August 1897, The Globe wrote of the interest derived from the presence “of an automobile vehicle, or motocycle, or autocar, the name being as yet unfixed.” In June 1901, the Toronto Automobile Club had its first rendezvous — a cavalcade of eight cars starting at Queen’s Park and driving around Toronto. Its president was John Craig Eaton — then Vice-President (and soon-to-be President) of the T. Eaton Company.The following decades saw a growth in cars on the streets of Toronto and it was transformational for daily life in Toronto. In 1913, there were 17,000 cars in Toronto; by 1923, the number grew to about 50,000 cars. With it, Toronto refined its rules of the road and its technologies to manage traffic flow. The first version of the modern traffic light arrived in 1925.On August 5, 1920, By-Law 8485 “To Regulate Traffic on the Public Streets” was passed. It focused on parking allowances and prohibitions, turning and stopping, obeying signals, and even regulated pedestrians (including bicyclists).It also transformed a number of streets into one-way streets. The list included Leader Lane and many of its surrounding streets and lanes in the financial district: Victoria Street, Colborne Street, and Jordan Street. Other additions included Queen’s Park and Spadina Crescents, which were separated into north- and south-bound streets on either side of their respective islands.The changes must have spurred a larger discussion about traffic measures. In a traffic conference in June 1923, more one-way streets were urged, including Yonge Street during peak times when parking provisions on the street were also reformed to allow the change. It was the first of nearly a century of schemes and ideas to make Yonge Street one directional. In 1928, the former Chief of Police Samuel J. Dickson raised the idea of making all traffic on Yonge Street travel south between Front Street and St. Clair Avenue. Conversely, strictly northbound traffic would travel along Bay Street, Davenport, and Poplar Plains Road.Proposals and studies for a one-way Yonge Street arose in nearly every decade in the 20th century. Some, such as in 1968 and 1984, actually came with the idea of reducing the lanes on Yonge and improving the pedestrian arena with wider sidewalks and even pedestrian-only areas. In 1988, it arguably came the closest to a reality: Toronto City Council voted to turn Yonge Street into a northbound road (with Bay Street handling southbound traffic) on a trial basis. However, downtown businesses challenged the plan in court and won. The plan was killed in another council vote in 1989. Most recently, in May 2012, City Councilor and Public Works Committee chair Denzil Minnan-Wong proposed a one-way Yonge, but there was no follow-through. Interestingly, the counter-argument from a fellow councillor was similar to that of businesses in 1988: it would have been disruptive to local commerce.Other major streets were also targets for traffic regulation reform in the 20th century — to more success. In 1946, the Civic Works Committee recommended one-way traffic on Adelaide and Richmond Streets. The former would apply from York to Jarvis Streets; the latter from Jarvis to University Streets. Unfortunately, while a trial period was proposed, the idea was seemingly forgotten for more than a decade. On Sunday, May 4, 1958, the pilot on Adelaide and Richmond finally began; it was filled with confusion and wrong-way turns. But by Monday, the test was already declared a success by city officials, the Toronto Transit Commission, and Toronto Police. By-Law No. 20418, passed on September 2, 1958, included Richmond, Adelaide, and roughly three hundred entries (that is, also including lanes and parts of streets) under Schedule VIII for one-way streets. The success seemed to have spurred further proposals to create a network of one-way streets in Toronto, which was layered with the movement for expressways as a means of allowing better and safer traffic flow. Today, vehicles in the downtown core travel uniquely west on Richmond Street and east on Adelaide Street.Today, Toronto’s main streets do not follow a strict network of one-way streets as other Canadian and American cities have adopted. As with many civic improvement projects in Toronto, the approach to the one-way regulation seems to have been a gentle one: beginning small with narrow streets around the financial district and increasing to large changes like Richmond and Adelaide Streets when political appetite allowed it. In that way, Leader Lane truly was a leader.A special thank you to Francesca Bouaoun of the Toronto Archives and Tony Masucci of By-Law Support for their assistance in retrieving archival by-laws.“1-Way Yonge Street South from Davenport Recommended in Study.” Globe and Mail, 26 Mar. 1968, p. 5.“A Downtown Essential.” The Globe and Mail, 1 Dec. 1959, p. 5.“After Erring Autoists.” The Globe, 01 June, 1921, p. 9.“An Automobile Club.” The Globe, 21 Jun. 1901, p. 10.Baker, Alden. “Expanded one-way street system could be key to narrower Yonge.” The Globe and Mail, 27 Mar. 1984, p. M3.“Bold Tactics Called For.” Globe and Mail, 5 Oct. 1951, p. 6.Church, Elizabeth. “Wider Sidewalks, One-Way Traffic Floated as Ways to Improve Yonge Street.” The Globe and Mail, The Globe and Mail, 9 May 2012, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/wider-sidewalks-one-way-traffic-floated-as-ways-to-improve-yonge-street/article4105527/.“City Asks Changes In Municipal Act.” Toronto Daily Star, 18 Feb. 1920, p. 2.City of Toronto, By-Law No. 4108, To regulate the traffic of Leader Lane (2 July, 1901)City of Toronto, By-Law No. 8485, To regulate Traffic on the Public Streets (5 August, 1920)City of Toronto, By-Law No. 20418, To regulate traffic on roads (2 September, 1958)“City of Toronto Traffic By-Law.” Toronto Daily Star, 2 Mar. 1933, p. 12.“Congestion of City Streets Demands Control of Traffic.” The Globe, 11 Jul. 1925, p. 13.“Crosstown Project, One-Way Street Plan, Suggested For City.” Globe and Mail, 10 May. 1962, pg. 5.“Deer Park Plan: One-Way Yonge St. Would Border Plaza.” Globe and Mail, 20 Sept. 1961, p. 5.“Demanding Full Consideration.” The Globe and Mail, 1 Feb. 1949, p. 6.“Discussion Begins Monday” The Globe and Mail, 24 Mar. 1972, p. 5.Doolittle, Robyn. “Should Yonge, Bay Be One-Way.” Toronto Star, 9 May 2012, pp. GT1–GT2.“Downtown One-Way Traffic Urged.” The Globe and Mail, 1 Nov. 1946, p. 25.“Echoes 1968 Plan: One-Way Yonge, Church Proposed.” The Globe, 8 Feb. 1972, p. 5.“Features About Toronto Streets.” Toronto Daily Star, 9 Jan. 1909, p. 4.Georgiou, Bob. “A Quick Early History of Toronto’s First Traffic Signals and the ‘right on Red’ Rule.” Scenes From Toronto, 30 Jan. 2022, scenesto.com/2022/01/30/a-quick-early-history-of-torontos-first-traffic-signals-and-the-right-on-red-rule/.“A Horrible Waterfront.” The Globe, 27 Apr. 1901, p. 26.“If Yonge Were a One-Way Street.” The Globe, 10 Mar. 1928, p. 17.MacKenzie, James. “One-way Street Scheme.” The Globe and Mail, 4 Oct. 1970, p. 5.McIntyre, A. Lorne. “One-Way-Traffic Suggestion Would INclude Street Cars.” The Globe and Mail, 25 Aug. 1938, p. 1.“More Study Required.” The Globe and Mail, 29 Apr. 1947, p. 6.“Morning South, Night North Yonge Street One-Way Plan.” Globe and Mail, 17 Feb. 1954, p. 1.“Motor Car Records Put Toronto Ahead.” The Globe, 28 Nov. 1919, p. 17.“Old Habits Hard to Break.” Globe and Mail, 6 May 1958, p. 1.“One-Way Roads For Downtown Urged.” The Globe and Mail, 11 Apr. 1963, p. 5.“One Side of Yonge To Be Kept Clear.” The Globe, 6 June 1923, p. 13.“One-Way Streets Speed Traffic in U.S. Cities.” The Globe, 23 Aug. 1947, p. 3.“One-Way Traffic Experiment Given Sunday Sendoff.” Globe and Mail, 5 May 1958, p. 19.“One-Way Traffic on Richmond, Adelaide Urged.” Globe and Mail, 5 Feb. 1958, p. 4.“One-Way Traffic On Yonge Studied.” Globe and Mail, 2 Mar. 1954, p. 5.Taylor, Paul. “City Votes to Make Yonge, Bay One-Way.” Globe and Mail, 17 May 1988, p. A1.Taylor, Paul. “Toronto Council Rejects One-Way Yonge Street.” Globe and Mail, 24 Feb. 1989, p. A14.“Telephone Agreement.” The Globe, 28 May 1901, p. 8.“To Clear Taxis Off K.E. Stand.” The Globe, 10 July 1920, p. 6.“The Horseless Age.” The Globe, Aug 28, 1897, p. 15.“Toronto Motor Car Increase 305 Per Cent Since 1920.” The Globe, 16 Aug. 1938, p. 1.“Traffic May Be One Way, Reverse on New Yonge St.” Globe and Mail, 14 May 1953, p. 29.“Wagons in Leader Lane.” Toronto Daily Star, 9 Oct. 1900, p. 3.“Watch One-Way Streets in City.” The Globe, 2 Oct. 1920, p. 20.“When Toronto’s Mayor Planned to Make Yonge and Bay One-Way Streets | CBC.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 17 May 2023, http://www.cbc.ca/archives/when-toronto-s-mayor-planned-to-make-yonge-and-bay-one-way-streets-1.5559508.“‘One Way’ Streets Are Recommended.” The Globe, 27 Mar. 1920, p. 8.;

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