1921: TORONTO TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION IS ESTABLISHED
The expansion of Toronto’s transportation network enabled the outward dispersion of the city’s boundaries and population. In fact, “more than 86 percent of the population live in a suburban neighborhood” (Gordon 2013, 209). Moreover, the city’s economy was enhanced by the more widespread transportation, as dense commercial developments developed along the transportation corridors. In 1921, the Toronto Transportation Commission was established, which consolidated the previously independent Toronto Railway Company, the Toronto Civic Railway, and parts of the Toronto & York Radial Railway.
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The consolidation of such infrastructure and resources led to advances in both the city's transportation and economy. Specifically, it allowed the city to provide better transit and accessibility throughout its immediate and surrounding areas. Furthermore, it enhanced the city’s role as a major industrial and trading port, as good were able to be moved easily to, from, and through Toronto, due to the city’s access to both water and rail transit. Dense commercial development also emerged along the transportation corridor, which further enhanced the city's economy. The images below illustrate how the city itself expanded in relation to the primary transportation corridors, and how commercial land uses developed along such routes, of the Toronto Transportation Commission.
