Don Valley Parkway
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Don Valley Parkway, looking southbound. |
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Don Valley Parkway, looking northbound, in typical rush-hour traffic |
The
Don Valley Parkway (often referred to as the "
DVP" or simply as "
The Parkway") is a controlled-access six-lane
freeway in
Toronto,
Ontario,
Canada, so named because it runs through the scenic
Don River Valley.
The northern terminus of the Don Valley Parkway is at the
Highway 401 interchange while its southern terminus is at the
FG Gardiner Expressway. It follows the route of the former
Woodbine Avenue between
O'Connor Drive and
Highway 401 and through a new route through the lower Don valley. The speed limit is 90 km/h (55 mph).
The Don Valley
Parkway was built as part of a grand plan initiated by then
Metro Chair FG Gardiner (for which the FG Gardiner Expressway is named) in the 1950s to criss-cross the city with expressways. The highways plan was never completed because of popular objections to several of the expressway routes leaving it and the Gardiner Expressway to carry the bulk of highway traffic into the core.
North of Highway 401, the freeway continues as
Ontario provincial highway 404.
Metropolitan Toronto had initially intended to extend the DVP north past
Sheppard Avenue but the province took over the project and renamed it Highway 404. Although the DVP does not use exit numbers, Highway 404's exit numbers start at 17 (instead of 0) in order to account for the length of the DVP.
From south to north:
| Street | Description |
|---|
| Gardiner Expressway | southbound to westbound Gardiner,eastbound Gardiner to northbound Don Valley Parkway only |
|---|
| Lakeshore Boulevard | interchange at Gardiner, via Don Roadway |
|---|
| Eastern Avenue | southbound off-ramp to westbound Eastern Avenue Diversion (Richmond St. West), northbound on-ramp from eastbound Eastern Avenue Diversion (Adelaide St. West) only |
|---|
| Queen Street East | northbound on-ramp via Davies Avenue only |
|---|
| Dundas Street East | northbound on-ramp only |
|---|
| Danforth Avenue | northbound on-ramp from eastbound Danforth only |
|---|
| Bloor Street / Bayview Avenue | long ramp (originally intended as part of Crosstown Expressway, intersects Bloor at Castle Frank Road) |
|---|
| Don Mills Road | full interchange, Except No Don Mills Rd N To Don Valley Parkway N |
|---|
| Eglinton Avenue East | full interchange |
|---|
| Wynford Drive | southbound off-ramp and northbound on-ramp only |
|---|
| Lawrence Avenue East | full interchange |
|---|
| York Mills Road | full interchange |
|---|
| Highway 401 / Highway 404 | full interchange |
|---|
*
Bayview Ave/
Bloor Street to
Eglinton Avenue East 1961
* Eglinton Avenue
East to
Lawrence Avenue East 1963
* Bloor Street to Gardiner Expressway 1964
* Lawrence Avenue
East to
Sheppard Avenue East 1966 - along with the expansion of
Highway 401 into a collector-express system
* Sheppard Avenue
East to
Steeles Avenue East 1977 - now part of
Highway 404The Don Valley Parkway is Toronto's busiest commuter route (along with the
Gardiner Expressway), connecting the city to its northern and eastern suburbs via Highways 401 and
404. When the construction of the DVP was completed in
1966, Toronto had a much smaller population. Today, the population of the outer suburbs has grown to several times its previous amount, subsequently, the number of vehicles has grown and the DVP is frequently congested. This has earned the DVP its other nickname, "the Don Valley Parking Lot".
The most congested section is between
Eglinton Avenue and
Ontario provincial highway 401 often being congested well beyond the normal rush hours, although the highway is often congested along its whole length. This situation has not changed since the 1980's.
The interchange with Highway 401 is a serious bottleneck, due to only 2 through traffic lanes for northbound/southbound traffic and because of heavy four-way volumes. The worst jams occur southbound just past the junction with Highway 401, where 5 lanes + 1 HOV Lane from Highway 404, 4 lanes from the 401 Westbound, 2 lanes from the 401 Eastbound and 1 lane from the Sheppard Avenue interchange become 4, and eventually 3. Plans to reduce traffic have included Single Occupant Vehicle Tolls combined with Duo Occupancy Vehicle Tolls which are slightly lower than SOV and tolls in general have all been cancelled.
Traffic management on the DVP has improved with the installation of overhead display signs, similar to the Compass system on
Ontario provincial highway 401 and overhead ('RESCU') cameras have been installed along the route.
The Don Valley Parkway was originally designed and built as a four-lane expressway and has subsequently been expanded to six lanes. As the volume of commuters has grown, plans have been floated several times to expand the highway further, add bus lanes or other alternative roadways, although no plans exist currently.
During the 2003 municipal election campaign, candidates openly debated expanding the highway, funded through the conversion of the highway to a toll highway, but this was rejected after fears that traffic would be diverted on already-congested parallel arterials such as Bayview Avenue and popular objections to toll highways.
Most recently, in 2004, the
Canadian Automobile Association lobbied for a plan of expansion of the DVP, along with the construction of additional arterial roads to accommodate the traffic volumes.
*
Municipal expressways in Toronto*
William R. Allen Road*
City of Toronto RESCU Traffic Cameras (also includes traffic cameras for the Gardiner Expressway and Lake Shore Boulevard)
*
Realtime Highway Traffic - updated every 120 seconds + live cameras
*
Missing Links; A Complete Illustrated History of Toronto's Controversial Expressway System
