John Street

Leslie Street to Woodbine Avenue

This is not an official study, it is entirely independent.

This study is examining traffic conditions on John Street between Leslie Street and Woodbine Avenue, including all intersections in the study area. The road is four lanes with left- and right-turn lanes at most signalized intersections. Based on site visits conducted in late April and May 2025, John Street appears to operate smoothly during the AM rush hour, with problems only potentially present at Woodbine Avenue and on the left turn lane from southbound Leslie Street to eastbound John Street.

Based on site visits between late April and mid-June, traffic problems during the PM rush hour are inconsistent (travel times varying from 2 to 6 minutes from Steelcase to Leslie). Midweek, there have usually been traffic problems while they are uncommon on Mondays and Fridays. The same applies with the bus route, which could be enhanced rather than adding car capacity. York Region Transit (YRT)'s Route 2 - Milliken is frequently crowded for the westbound trips travelling in the area within the first half of the 5 p.m. hour, and buses have neared capacity during multiple site visits. During a site visit on May 15, 2025, people on the bus were standing right up to the yellow line at the front of the bus. However, situations like this do not occur every day and are rare on Mondays and Fridays.

John Street includes a multi-use path on its north side, which connects to a north-south path at Leslie Street. West of there, there is no bike infrastructure on John. Currently, data collection is underway to determine what needs improvement and how it could potentially be improved.

Potential solutions

While I am very far from making any judgement on potential solutions, I have thought of a few which could potentially be implemented. As part of the idea generation process, I tried to include all sorts of ideas, even if they seemed terrible. This is my general philosophy during idea generation to ensure everything that can be considered does get considered (There is always a small chance that your terrible ideas are actually good). They are mixed in with the more mundane ideas which usually get considered for projects like this.

Option 1: Do Nothing: At present, I have not found consistency in traffic problems. There may be greater priorities for the City and a problem that only occurs three days per week during one rush hour may not be one worth spending money on.

Option 2: Improve Transit Capacity: It may be more worthwhile to increase bus service to lower wait times and increase capacity, decreasing the attractiveness of driving and potentially reducing traffic. Exactly how much this would need to be done is unknown, but a significant improvement is needed to routes 2 and 68B before all transit in the area is frequent during peak hours. As well, there are some areas (such as 14th Ave. between Woodbine and Alden) where taking transit may be a hassle due to the walking distance.

After Option 2, we reach the realm of infrastructure changes. These can be mapped, and I have displayed their locations along with short comments in the map below. Any idea in dark red (not pink) will almost certainly be ruled out due to their downsides.

Option 3: Bus Lanes: Perhaps to make transit more attractive than driving here, speed is needed as well. The ability for buses to bypass traffic would be a great visible selling point for taking the bus. Such lanes have worked in parts of Toronto, such as along the Eglinton East corridor.

Option 4: Intersection improvements: With the traffic issue not being too consistent, perhaps a small solution is needed. Traffic signal timing changes or lengthened/more turn lanes may be enough.

Option 5: Road widening: If we can not get people to take the bus along the corridor and induced demand will not cause a serious problem, perhaps a road widening would be a better option. However, due to the cost of bridge widening I am doubtful this will be recommended. The two ideas below are even more costly and will likely be ruled out quickly once all data is collected.

Option 6: Highway 404 Interchange: The turn lanes being overcapacity suggests people want to go north-south, perhaps along Highway 404. However, such an interchange would be more expensive than a bridge widening and would require part of Bishops Cross Park to be turned into on- and off-ramps. Thus, there would need to be a serious problem for this to be recommended.

Idea 7: Mid-Block Crossing: Perhaps traffic needs to be diverted off John. However, constructing a new bridge would also be very expensive, and thus would need much greater traffic problems to be worthwhile, especially considering either one would destroy parkland or housing. The southern idea has been ruled out due to dumping traffic onto Simonston.

Current status

Presently, data is still being collected. Based on the preliminary data showing inconsistent problems, any expensive or destructive solution will most likely not be recommended in favour of a smaller-scale solution such as a shorter bus lane (perhaps starting west of the bridge), intersection improvements, or simply improving transit capacity to accomodate more riders and reduce wait times.

Last updated: 6/18/2025