Avenue Road is the enduring legacy of Sam Cass. Very enduring.
Cass was the traffic engineer hired by the new Metro Toronto government created in 1954 to federate the city of Toronto and 12 other local municipalities. His task was to create a network of roads that would bring people efficiently into the downtown core and take them back to their suburban homes at night. That was the post-war vision of the city. He took to this task with the zeal that earned him the nickname of “road czar.” Cass believed in the car and thought the only people who used public transit were those who couldn’t afford to drive.
“Transit,” he once said, “is not an alternative to the car.”
Council will need to decide if Sam Cass and Fred Gardiner’s 1950s vision should rule the Toronto of today or if it’s time to heed the call of residents who want to reclaim their streets and rebuild them according to 21st century attitudes and priorities.
FIXING SAM’S ROAD: THE URBAN DESIGN DISASTER OF AVENUE ROAD – Spacing.ca, August 26, 2021
