Toronto Transportation Services is the division of the

City of Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

which manages

transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, an ...

infrastructure within public

rights of way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by Easement#Easement by prescription, prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. With an operating budget of approximately $436.4 million in 2022 and 1,400 staff, the division maintains the city's surface streets and sidewalks,

cycling infrastructure Cycling infrastructure is all infrastructure cyclists are allowed to use. Bikeways include bike paths, bike lanes, cycle tracks, rail trails and, where permitted, sidewalks. Roads used by motorists are also cycling infrastructure, except whe ...

, the

Gardiner Expressway The Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway, commonly known as the Gardiner Expressway or simply the Gardiner, is a partially at grade and elevated municipal expressway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Running close to the shore of Lake Ontario, it extends ...

and the

Don Valley Parkway The Don Valley Parkway (DVP) is a municipal expressway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which connects the Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto with Highway 401. North of Highway 401, it continues as Highway 404. The parkway run ...

History

The department was created in the 1998

amalgamation of Toronto The amalgamation of Toronto was the creation of the city limits of Toronto, Ontario, Canada after amalgamating, annexing, and merging with surrounding municipalities since the 18th century. The most recent occurrence of amalgamation was in 1998 ...

from the merger of: *

Metropolitan Toronto The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and villages that surrounded Toronto, whic ...

Transportation Department (

Metro Toronto Roads and Transportation Metro Toronto Roads and Traffic (later Metro Transportation) was a department within the former Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. The department was responsible for maintaining major arterial roads, bridges and local freeways systems (Gardi ...

) *

North York North York is one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly north of York, Old Toronto and East York, between Etobicoke to the west and Scarborough to the east. As of the 2016 Census, it had a popu ...

Transportation Department *

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

Works Department *

Etobicoke Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district of, and one of six municipalities amalgamated into, the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west-end, Etobicoke was first settled by Europeans in the 1790s, and the municipalit ...

Transportation Department *

City of York The City of York is a unitary authority area with city status in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. The district's main settlement is York, and it extends to the surrounding area including the town of Haxby and the villages of E ...

Transportation Department *

East York East York is a former administrative district and municipality within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From 1967 to 1998, it was officially the Borough of East York, a semi-autonomous borough within the upper-tier municipality of Metropolitan Toron ...

Transportation Department *

Department of Public Works and the Environment Before amalgamation, Metro Toronto Transportation was responsible for major roads across Metro, while the municipalities were responsible for collector and local roads in their respective areas.

Responsibilities and operations

Transportation Services is responsible for planning, construction, and management of the transportation infrastructure within the public right-of-way, including the public realm, sidewalks and roads. This includes: * maintenance of around 10,000 different streets totalling 5,397 kilometres * over 2,400

traffic signal Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – known also as robots in South Africa are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control flows of traffic. Traffic light ...

s * 7,100 km of

sidewalk A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English), footpath in Australia, India, New Zealand and Ireland, or footway, is a path along the side of a street, street, highway, terminals. Usually constructed of concrete, pavers, brick ...

s * 530

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

s * over one million signs * 4,100

bus shelter A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

Snow removal

The division is responsible for snow removal on public roads, sidewalks and other public areas: * Total kilometres of ploughed sidewalks: 6,000 * Total number of opened driveways: 262,000 A variety of city and contract staff/equipment are used for snow removal: * 592

snowplow A snowplow (also snow plow, snowplough or snow plough) is a device intended for mounting on a vehicle, used for removing snow and ice from outdoor surfaces, typically those serving transportation purposes. Although this term is often used to re ...

grader A grader, also commonly referred to as a road grader, motor grader, or simply a blade, is a form of heavy equipment with a long blade used to create a flat surface during grading. Although the earliest models were towed behind horses, and lat ...

s * 5

Metromelt A Metromelt is a self-propelled snowmelter machine. History They were first built in 1974 for the then Toronto Metro Roads and Works department to remove major snow accumulations from roads managed by Metro Toronto. Built by Trecan Combustion ...

melting machines * PD-350 snow melting trailer units * 296 sidewalk ploughs * 211 salt trucks * City staff: 536 * Contracted staff: 1,068 Average snowfall in the city is 130 cm per year with 40 to 50 days of de-icing events per year. An average of 146,275 tonnes of salt is used each year (based on a ten-year average). The city's snow removal budget is over $60 million a year. Transportation Services is also responsible for a wide variety of activities including: * Road and sidewalk maintenance * Street cleaning * Permits for on-street parking, construction and street events * Traffic signs and pavement markings * Traffic signals and traffic safety * Red light camera operations * Construction planning and policies

Traffic Management Centre

The Traffic Management Centre consists of the Traffic Safety, Traffic Plant Installations and Maintenance, and Urban Traffic Control Systems units. These units are responsible for: *

Red light camera A red light camera (short for red light running camera ) is a type of traffic enforcement camera that photographs a vehicle that has entered an intersection after the traffic signal controlling the intersection has turned red. By automatically phot ...

s * Central traffic signal systems * Priority for

Toronto Transit Commission The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...

and emergency vehicles (

Toronto Fire Services Toronto Fire Services (TFS) provides fire protection, technical rescue services, hazardous materials response, and first responder emergency medical assistance in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Toronto Fire Services is currently the largest municipal ...

Toronto Paramedic Services The City of Toronto Paramedic Services (TPS; formerly known as Toronto Emergency Medical Services), is the statutory emergency medical services provider in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The service is operated as a division of the City of Toronto, und ...

Toronto Police Service The Toronto Police Service (TPS) is a municipal police force in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the primary agency responsible for providing law enforcement and policing services in Toronto. Established in 1834, it was the first local police ser ...

) * Traffic Safety Unit providing traffic data and collision analysis * Deployment of intelligent transportation systems to manage congestion *

Road Emergency Services Communications Unit The Road Emergency Services Communications Unit (RESCU) is a traffic management system used by the City of Toronto on city managed highways. The system is used to monitor traffic on: * Gardiner Expressway from the Queen Elizabeth Way to the Don ...

expansion * Pedestrian crossing signals

Sections

Transportation Services is divided into seven sections: * Policy & Innovation * Planning & Capital Programs * Project Design & Management * Business Performance * Operations & Maintenance * Traffic Management * Permits & Enforcement

References

{{Toronto Transportation Services City of Toronto departments