Expressways of the Future!
I don't know about you, but I find stuff like this fascinating. I'm sure I'm not the only one with an urban planning fetish. Gaze into the horrific future of 1980, through the eyes of the CBC, if the urban planners of 1960 had their way. In 1960, apparently there was a lot of debate about whether the future of urban transportation was going to be cars or trains. Toronto was apparently working towards a compromise, of sorts. Neither fully lived up to the dream.
I think this explains Allen Road. Allen Road is an inexplicable little expressway that seems to start nowhere and go nowhere. I always kinda assumed it was built to service CFB Downsview, but I guess it goes beyond that. The planners, it seems, were envisioning a glorious "Spadina Expressway." It would run from (what was then) the top of the city down to another "Toronto-Hamilton high-speed expressway", which looks like it follows Eglinton before cutting down to Dupont. The Toronto by-pass, "Highway 403!" showed up about 20 years late as the 407 which, of course, can hardly be called a by-pass, since it doesn't actually go anywhere east of the city. And, of course, the "ultra-modern, six-lane super-highway" Gardiner didn't get quite as far as was hoped. Thankfully. Did Fred Gardiner seriously name that thing after himself? Aren't you supposed do die or something before things get named after you? What a tool.
With the notable exception of the Queen St. subway, I have to note that the mass transit plans mostly ended up happening as envisioned. Which, if I felt cynical, might indicate some lack of vision in the interim.
The mindset of the crazy New York highway enthusiast is kinda preplexing to me. But then I've got nearly 50 years of hindsight on him. I mean, kudos for believing people would actually carpool or take buses. It doesn't really happen much, but it does show he wasn't thinking SOVs were the only way to go, even if it would be a boon to their "great industries." Nowadays we kinda take it as read that car culture created suburban sprawl, which he admits is a bad thing (but only because of some weird tax base reasoning), and the 1960 CBC guy seems to think so too, but New York guy doesn't seem to see it. I guess he wasn't alone.
Update: Missing Links: A Complete History of Toronto's Controversial Expressway System. Despite the above, I actually sympathize with this guy. As much as I think the completed expressway system would have been disasterous for Toronto, I do hate seeing things unfinished. Never fear, however! Plans are underway to replace the Gardiner with a lovely, >$1.5B viaduct project. If you're gonna dream, dream big.
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