Toronto Secret Routes

 

Their existence may be very well hidden, but the former Metropolitan Toronto did have a network of numbered Metropolitan Roads!  The only place I have seen them referred to, is updates to the Toronto by-laws.  They are most certainly not posted, although they may be hidden within serial/reference numbers on pieces of infrastructure (light standards, signal control boxes, etc.).

 

Toronto’s roads are referred to by the prefix “M.T.” — e.g., Yonge Street is “M.T. 29”.  Like the Interstate system, all even numbers run east-west, and all odd numbers run north-south.  Also similar to Interstates, numbers generally increase from west to east and from south to north, although there are many exceptions.  Similar to Ontario’s 400-series highways, controlled-access M.T. roads start at M.T. 200; these numbers appear to also follow the even/odd E-W/N-S rule, although this theory would be better proved with the discovery of a number for Allen Road (formerly the Spadina Expressway).

 

(Update — December 2001!  I have come across a map in a planning document which has provided insight into the numbering of Allen Road.  Unfortunately the numbers are hardly readable due to over-photocopying and over-reduction, but the Allen Road number appears to be 21, which would tie it to Spadina Avenue — makes sense when you think about the original plans to tie the two roads together.  Certainly it is a two-digit number, not a three-digit “controlled access” number.)

 

As I have yet to see an actual list of route numbers, the following lists may not include all number designations.  It does, however, include all Metropolitan Roads referred to in the past four years of by-law amendments (1998-2001).

 

North-South Routes (Odd, 1-81)

 

 

East-West Routes (Even, 2-42)

 

*Note: There is one by-law referring to Leslie St. as M.T. 2 at Sheppard; I believe this is a typographic error as it is the only such reference, and Leslie Street is referred to elsewhere as M.T. 61.

 

Controlled Access (200-203)