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Getting Around In Toronto

Public Transportation

Toronto

Mississauga

Durham Region

Brampton

VIA Rail

GO Transit

Islands Ferry

Walking

There are many forms of transportation in the city of Toronto. These include highways and public transit. Toronto's primary airport is Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), which is along the western boundary with Mississauga. Toronto also has an extensive network of bicycle lanes and multi-use trails and paths, which are used by cyclists in the city to get from place to place safely.

Roads

Toronto has 9500 roads or 5200 kilometres across the city. Toronto is largely built on a grid-based road system with a few notable exceptions. These include streets such as Davenport Road and Vaughan Road, which follow an old native trail, while others, such as Kingston Road, were originally constructed to link Toronto with other settlements in Ontario. The downtown core is built to a fine grain, human scale, mostly consisting of four lane arterial and collector roads. Outside the downtown core, most arterial roads have two or three lanes of traffic in each direction. Toronto's road system was mainly designed for vehicular traffic, and is quite easy to navigate.

Roads in Toronto are often potted with potholes due to freezing and thawing in the winter-spring seasons. On average, there are 100 major potholes reported with a high of 1000.

Public Transport

Within the city, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) operates an extensive system of subways, buses, and streetcars, covering 1,200 km (750 mi) of routes and heavily used by people who live in or near the city. A single flat fare applies for any trip within the city regardless of distance or transfers required with the exception of contracted routes that travel outside of the city and downtown express routes. Toronto has the third highest transit system rider ship in North America

The backbone of the TTC is a basic subway system with two main lines, the U-shaped Yonge–University–Spadina Line and the east-west Bloor–Danforth Line, running along principal streets and connecting Toronto's outlying areas with its downtown core. Each line also connects to a secondary feeder near one of its outer ends.

The rest of the city is primarily served by a network of about 150 bus routes, many of them forming a grid along main streets. Most of the 11 streetcar routes are concentrated in the downtown core, and all connect to the subway.

Airports

Toronto's primary airport is Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), straddling Toronto's western boundary with Mississauga. The city also has a small commercial airport, the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ), commonly known as the 'island airport' on Toronto Island, south-west of downtown.

Cycling

Cycling in Toronto has improved over the years as the residents and municipal government have become more interested in it as a form of transportation. Toronto has a major program in place to dramatically expand the network through on-road separate bike lanes, with the goal of having any cyclist in the city proper within a five minute ride of a designated bike route. The network includes a planned 500 km of on-street bike lanes, and another 250 km of off-road paved trails.

PATH is downtown Toronto's underground walkway linking 28 kilometres of shopping, services and entertainment. PATH is the largest underground shopping complex with 28 km (17 miles) of shopping arcades.

Cycling

Bike Sharing

Bike Route Planning

Driving

Traffic and Road Info

Green P Parking

Discovery Walks

Discovery Walks is a program of self guided walks that link city ravines, parks gardens, beaches and neighbourhoods. Informative signage will help you experience an area's heritage and environment.

Info, Maps & Brochures

Air Rail Link

The Air Rail Link (ARL) is an airport rail link service under construction in Toronto. It will run between Canada's two busiest transportation hubs: Union Station in downtown Toronto, and Toronto Pearson International Airport in the City of Mississauga. The project is to be completed in time for the 2015 Pan American Games.

Airport

Bus Terminals

Most intercity coach services operate out of the Toronto Coach Terminal. Its departures building fills the northern half of the block bounded by Bay, Dundas, Edward and Elizabeth Streets, while its arrivals building is located across Elizabeth Street from the departures building. Intercity coach companies operating services out of the terminal include: Greyhound Canada, Coach Canada, Trailways of New York, and Megabus is now expanding its business from the terminal. GO Transit operates all of its commuter bus services into and out of downtown Toronto from the Union Station Bus Terminal.

Toronto Coach Terminal (1931)

Commuting

The Greater Toronto Area is the fourth most congested urban area in North America, behind Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, and just ahead of Houston. The region has the worst average commute time in Canada at 82 minutes a day, which amounts to almost seven hours a week or 14 full days a year that the average commuter spends driving back and forth to work. Despite, 70 per cent of Torontonians drive to work.