September 17, 2025
Casa Loma Residents Association is making this submission to The Toronto & East York City Council regarding a motion to be presented on September 18 regarding Bathurst Street: Speeding up the Northbound Bus.
Our area is a community of 550 homes, 3 high rise apartment towers and over 2500 residents, who live in the residential area east of Bathurst, north of Davenport, south of St. Clair and west of Spadina. Residents in our community use Bathurst Street frequently, entering on to Bathurst from Austin Terrace, Nina St. and Melgund Rd. We use Bathurst to take our children to school, go to places of worship, frequent the businesses south of Dupont and access the downtown area. We also use the Bathurst 7 bus primarily for short trips up and down Bathurst and to the Bathurst Subway Station when travelling into the quadrant south and west of Bathurst & Bloor. Our area also benefits from access to the Line 1 subway that runs from Eglinton (soon hopefully benefitting further from the Eglinton Crosstown) all the way to Bloor and further downtown.
Bathurst St. has always been busy. It serves not only the thousands of residents in the residential communities east and west of Bathurst, all the way to the downtown core but also commuters from the north and the delivery and tradespeople accessing these areas which have a high concentration of new multi unit constructions, home renovations or replacements based on the age of the area as well as a brand new 8 story self-storage that is just about to open at Bathurst and Dupont. We are used to the delays both by car and by bus.
We support the continuous improvement of Public Transit in Toronto, including on Bathurst St.
However, the Speeding up the Northbound Bus proposal before Council is flawed. It will very negatively affect the businesses and residents between Bloor and Eglinton there because of the onerous new extended No Stopping restrictions. These businesses and homes do not have laneways and in most cases driveways to access their properties. How are customers to shop there if there is No Stopping between 2 pm and 7 pm Monday to Friday and 12 pm and 7 pm on weekends? How are these businesses to get their deliveries? How are residents going to pick up and discharge family members? How are those with handicaps going to live, shop and worship in the area?
Rush hour has expanded over the years but does not come anywhere close to the proposed restrictive times for No Stopping. We recommend instead that rush hour No Stopping be extended from 3 pm to 6 pm Monday to Friday and that the City does a better job of enforcing this, perhaps by moving more traffic control officers from side streets to Bathurst between 3 pm and 6 pm. Although not part of the proposal it would also be logical to extend No Stopping during rush hour on the west side by 1 hour as well. Once these changes have been implemented then we would ask for the situation to be monitored and the results shared with the stakeholder community groups. We also question any extended rush hour restrictions on Saturday and Sunday when the dynamics of travel are entirely different from weekdays.
We have received many suggestions from our residents on ways bus transportation on Bathurst can be improved. Among these are:
- Convert every second bus to an Express Bus between the Bathurst/Bloor Subway station and St. Clair. Ave. West
- Introduce a Right Turn Green Arrow northbound at St. Clair as the pedestrian traffic there causes long backups down Bathurst
- Use the opportunity of the condo construction at Bathurst & St. Clair to create a dedicated bus lane stop northbound at St. Clair as this is a major offload/onload point.
- Study the area between Vaughan Rd and St. Clair West with the objective of introducing an advanced left turn light at Vaughan road and recalibrating the timing of the traffic lights at Melgund and St. Clair W. This is a major bottleneck area. Note the left turn at Vaughan Rd. is the only way for traffic to access St. Clair Ave. West. Contrary to the statement in the Proposal, there is not a left turn lane or permission at St. Clair W.
- Extend the use of left turn arrows all up and down Bathurst St. based on traffic volume as monitored by traffic cameras
- Study the traffic light at Bathurst & Nina to determine if it would not be better to also Incorporate Alcina into this intersection.
- Ban the use of large rigs on Bathurst (and other major streets) during rush hour as other cities like New York have done and expanded on.
- Come up with alternatives for the TTC Employees to enter and exit the Hillcrest yard as we have learned from the Bathurst St. Community Group that this traffic causes major bottlenecks in the 2-3 pm period when more than 500 cars enter and exit the TTC lots resulting in a major impact on the study data.
- Study the intersection westbound Davenport at Bathurst and evaluate whether removal of the left turn lane would help improve the afternoon rush hour traffic travelling west bound and turning north at Bathurst.
- Study the advanced green south bound turning left on Bathurst at Davenport to see whether the advanced green times should be adjusted to help with the complete flow of left turn traffic thereby helping the traffic traveling south bound on Bathurst.
We have also received suggestions regarding improving transit and traffic flow across the city including rush hour tolls and regulations on the increasing number of motorized bikes causing havoc not only to traffic but also pedestrians and pedal bikes as well. We would be willing to participate in the gathering of ideas from across the city to get our city moving which we believe will be far more productive than the current practice of developing proposals without adequate and transparent public input. We would also request that before major alterations occur, and on an ongoing basis, that our community along with other neighbouring residential and business communities be included in transparent and open ongoing discussions without pre-determined conclusions as was the case based on prior proposals advanced because of the FIFA games.
Together we make our city better.
Respectfully submitted by
Robert Levy
President
The Casa Loma Residents Association
