Don Valley Parkway

Don Valley Parkway
The DVP Route of Heroes
Don Valley Parkway highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by Government of Ontario[1]
Length	15.0 km (9.3 mi)
History	Proposed 1954 Opened August 31, 1961 – November 17, 1966[2]
Major junctions
North end	Highway 401 (continues as Highway 404)
Major intersections	Bloor Street East / Danforth Avenue Eglinton Avenue East
South end	Gardiner Expressway – Downtown Toronto
Location
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Major cities	Toronto
Highway system
Roads in Toronto North–South East–West Diagonal
Toronto Municipal Expressways ← Gardiner Expressway (1955) Don Valley Parkway (1961) Allen Road (1964) →

The Don Valley Parkway (DVP) is a municipal freeway 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 runs through the parklands of the Don River valley, after which it is named. It has a maximum speed limit of 90 km/h (56 mph)^[3] for its entire length of 15.0 km (9.3 mi).^[4] It is six lanes for most of its length, with eight lanes north of York Mills Road and four lanes south of Eastern Avenue. As a municipal road, it is patrolled by the Toronto Police Service.

The parkway was the second expressway to be built by Metropolitan Toronto (Metro) after the Gardiner Expressway. Planning began in 1954, the year of Metro's formation. The first section opened during 1961 and the entire route was completed to Sheppard Avenue by the end of 1966. South of Bloor Street, the parkway was constructed over existing roadways. North of Bloor Street, it was built on a new alignment through the valley, requiring the removal of several hills, diversion of the Don River and the clearing of woodland. North of Eglinton Avenue, the parkway follows the former Woodbine Avenue right-of-way north to Highway 401. A proposed extension to Steeles Avenue was instead taken over by the province and built as Highway 404, which also absorbed the Metro-built segment between Sheppard and Highway 401. The parkway was planned to be one of several municipal and provincial north–south expressways into downtown Toronto. The others, the Spadina Expressway (Allen Road) and a proposed southern extension of Highway 400 were truncated due to public opposition, leaving the parkway as the sole north–south expressway connecting downtown to the northern areas of Metro; the only other complete north-south freeway connecting to the Gardiner Expressway is Highway 427 at Toronto's west end.

Traffic conditions on the parkway often exceed its intended capacity of 60,000 vehicles per day. Today, some sections carry an average of 100,000 vehicles a day and have bumper-to-bumper traffic conditions during commuting hours. The parkway is also used by regional transit buses which can access designated lanes to pass slow-moving traffic. Locals refer to the parkway as the "Don Valley Parking Lot" due to the bumper-to-bumper traffic.^[5][6]

In November 2023, the municipal and provincial governments announced a tentative deal which will see responsibility for the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway transferred to the province and both maintained as provincial highways.^[7]