Work

This new report from the Infrastructure Institute explores the historical development of the city’s transportation infrastructure and its impacts on communities then and today.

The archival research explores over 60 years of Toronto’s history to understand if and how considerations of social equity shaped transportation decision-making. Tracing key events in three distinct eras of the City’s planning, it reveals a pattern of delayed and denied investment created by fiscal conservatism, stigmatization of density, deference to homeowners, and political strife, even as growing inequities were already apparent and acknowledged.

Through case studies of three Toronto neighbourhoods – Flemingdon Park, Malvern, and Eglinton West, the report explores how these historical forces have produced lasting disparities in transportation access, leaving communities behind. This project was commissioned by the City of Toronto. This work was supported by Mitacs through the Mitacs Accelerate Program.