Moving toward a safer, more inclusive, people-focused street
Avenue Road, Step by Step
Who we are
The Avenue Road Safety Coalition (ARSC) advocates for the safety of everyone who lives on, works on, or travels along Avenue Road between Bloor Street West and St. Clair Avenue West.
We represent the concerns of parents, seniors, people with disabilities, pedestrians, cyclists, business owners, residents, visitors, and others who share a vision of a safer Avenue Road.
Why change was needed
For decades, this 2.1 Klm. six-lane section of Avenue Road posed serious safety risks. Narrow sidewalks, high traffic speeds, and a road design focused primarily on moving vehicles created unsafe conditions for pedestrians and other vulnerable road users.
Over the past decade, ARSC has worked with local City councillors and community members to advocate for lower speeds, safer crossings, and wider, more accessible sidewalks.
Our immediate goal is to make Avenue Road safe and accessible for all. Our long-term vision is to restore it to a true boulevard — a safe, welcoming “Great Street” that reflects both City policy and the vision set out in Brown and Storey’s Re-inventing and Pedestrianizing the Avenue linear park.
The case for action was confirmed
Because a full reconstruction is not currently included in the City’s Ten-Year Capital Plan, the Coalition pushed for the City to conduct a professional transportation study to evaluate the present condition and, if warranted, to identify practical near-term improvements that could be delivered sooner.
A City transportation study confirmed our concerns that this 2.1-kilometre stretch of Avenue Road is conducive to excessive speeding, and sidewalks do not meet minimum safety or accessibility standards.
In 2023, City Transportation staff presented redesign options for public consultation. The Avenue Road Study recommended improving safety, mobility, and the streetscape for all road users between Bloor Street West and St. Clair Avenue West. The City’s recommended approach begins to address long-standing safety problems while advancing broader City goals related to road safety, climate action, accessibility, and complete streets.
Step One : Phase 1 improvements are now in place
In summer and fall 2024, Phase 1 safety improvements were installed between Bloor Street West and Dupont Street.
These changes include:
• wider pedestrian areas
• intersection safety improvements
• a signalized crossing and improved entrance to Ramsden Park
• a short bike lane connection from Bloor Street to Davenport Road
• some on-street parking
• a reduction from six lanes to four, with turning lanes where needed
The new four-lane configuration is consistent with the roadway south of Bloor Street and north of St. Clair Avenue West.
The post-installation monitoring report is now available for the section from Bloor Street West to Dupont Street.
It shows that the new design has reduced speeding and improved safety, with no adverse effects on traffic patterns or overall travel times. These changes are intended as cost-effective near-term improvements while the community continues to advocate for full reconstruction in the future.
What comes next
Thank you to every neighbour, partner, and supporter who has helped advance this work. Please stay involved as we continue to push for changes between Dupont and St. Clair, where speeding and unsafe conditions remain a threat, especially to the many school children and seniors who use this section of Avenue Road. This stretch can also become a safer, quieter, and more welcoming Great Street for the thousands of people who live, work, and travel along it.
One kilometre done and one to go. This work is not finished.
It will be.
Change takes time, and public support has helped bring us this far.
Join us in helping to make a safer, more inclusive and people-focused Avenue Road a reality.
ARSC Supporters
8 80 Cities
ABC Residents Association
Amica Senior Lifestyles
Annex Residents’ Association
Avenue Road Food Bank, Church of the Messiah
Bay CloverHill Community Association
Bells on Bloor
Brentwood Towers Tenants Association
Brown Junior Public School and Parent Council
Church of the Redeemer
Clark Faber Fiksel LLP
ClimateFast
Cottingham Junior Public School and Parent Council
Cycle Toronto Midtown
De La Salle College “Oaklands”
Deer Park Residents Group
Friends and Families for Safe Streets
Harbord Village Residents’ Association
Hazelton Place Retirement Residence
ISKCON Toronto – Hare Krishna Temple
Lytton Park Residents’ Organization
No More Noise Toronto
Pears on the Avenue Condo
Rathnelly Area Residents’ Association
Sierra 110 Avenue Road.
St. Clare Multi Faith Housing Society
TCHC Residents – 250 Davenport
TENBLOCK – Housing Developer
The Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT), Clean Air Partnership
Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition
The David Suzuki Foundation
TTCriders
Walk Toronto
The unsafe sidewalks in pictures
The 2.1-kilometre stretch of Avenue Road between St. Clair Avenue and Bloor Street West was a six-lane, high-speed road that is unsafe and hostile to pedestrians and cyclists. Research done by the City of Toronto showed that 85% of vehicles on the road routinely travel at speeds above 50 KPH. The sidewalks are substandard and dangerously narrow, especially when considering the speeding cars and trucks.
Thanks to the efforts of many these conditions have been corrected in Ward 11 between Bloor and Dupont where the lanes have been reduced to 4 and the narrow sidewalks buffered from the speeding traffic with more space. Sadly the unsafe speeding 6 lane expressway remains in Ward 12 between Dupont and St. Clair. We will work to correct this injustice.
See photos of the narrow, unsafe sidewalks on Avenue Road.
Collage photo credits:
Greeley Square planter Photo: Ingfbruno, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Dunsmuir Separated Bike Lanes 216, by Paul Krueger, via CC by 2.0 DEED
Street Patterns by Nelson Rivas AKA Cekis | Arterventions 2022 via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED