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The Spadina Expressway was one of five urban highways that were nearly built in Toronto in the 1970s. The plan would have bulldozed neighbourhoods so that suburban commuters had a direct route to drive downtown. But campaigners like Bobbi Speck and Jane Jacobs stopped it, saving iconic neighbourhoods like the Annex. Today, Toronto is one of the worst cities in the world for traffic. Should the expressway have been built anyway? We tell the story of the grassroots movement to stop Spadina with the people who were there first-hand. Does the movement perhaps offer tips on how to solve Toronto’s notoriously bad traffic?
Irene Galea