 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
   | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| York Regional Road 3 | |||||||
 Route of Kennedy Road through Toronto and York Region (blue line) | |||||||
| Namesake | Thomas Laird Kennedy & Family | ||||||
| Maintained by | City ofToronto Region of York | ||||||
| Length | 68.3 km (42.4 mi) (southern section: 43.8 km (27.2 mi) northern section: 24.5 km (15.2 mi))[1][2] | ||||||
| Location | Toronto Markham East Gwillimbury Georgina | ||||||
| South end | Highview Avenue inToronto | ||||||
| Major junctions | Danforth Road St Clair Avenue Eglinton Avenue Lawrence Avenue Ellesmere Road  Highway 401Sheppard Avenue Finch Avenue Steeles Avenue  Highway 407 Highway 7 Major Mackenzie Drive Elgin Mills Road Stouffville Road Bloomington Road Aurora Road St. John’s Sideroad Vivian Road Davis Drive—Road breaks—  Mount Albert Road Queensville Sideroad Ravenshoe Road Metro Road | ||||||
| North end | Lake Drive inGeorgina | ||||||
| |||||||
Kennedy Road is a major north-south arterial road inToronto andYork Region,Ontario,Canada. It has a main southern section running 43.8 km north from Highview Avenue in Toronto to Davis Drive at the boundary ofWhitchurch-Stouffville andEast Gwillimbury in York,[1] and a 24.5 km northern section from Harold Road toLake Simcoe inGeorgina.[2]
Kennedy Road is a rare example of two major streets in theGreater Toronto Area to share names: the otherKennedyRoad being located inPeel Region. In York Region, former parts of Kennedy Road include Old Kennedy Road andMain Street Unionville. Kennedy Road is broken betweenDavis Drive and Herald Road, due to the Bendor and Graves Tract, a planted forest managed by York Regional Forests.[3]
It is home to the business district ofScarborough district because of the long suburban retail strip along it betweenLawrence Avenue East to just north ofSheppard Avenue East. The Toronto section of the road is otherwise mainly residential with high rise apartment buildings. North ofSteeles Avenue East, it enters York Region and is designated and signed asYork Regional Road 3, and traversesMarkham,Whitchurch-Stouffville,East Gwillimbury, and Georgina, where it terminates atLake Simcoe. Kennedy Road is named for the Kennedy family, one of the many early farming settlers in the 18th and 19th centuries to whichThomas Laird Kennedy belonged. It is likely linked toPrivate John Kennedy of the 3rd Regiment of the York Militia (nowThe Queen's York Rangers (1st American Regiment) (RCAC) who was granted 100 acres (0.40 km2) of land near Kennedy Road and Ellesmere Road.
Kennedy Road resumes north of Herald Road, ending at Lake Drive on the shore of Lake Simcoe.
In the 1990s, Kennedy Road was realigned atSteeles Avenue to connect the broken section, and was realigned east 300 m betweenHighway 407 and16th Avenue.From Steeles Avenue, it is a four-lane road northward toMajor Mackenzie Drive East, and a two-lane road from Major Mackenzie Drive East to Lake Simcoe.
There are low-density residential and commercial buildings fromSteeles Avenue toMajor Mackenzie Drive East and from Mahoney Avenue to Lake Drive East. Future high density residential and commercial development is beginning to go up in Downtown Markham, as Kennedy forms its eastern boundary. Lots of farmland and forests can be found between Mahoney Avenue and Major Mackenzie Drive East.
The Kennedy Road Business Improvement Association (BIA) represents more than 300 businesses located on the road between Lawrence Avenue East and Kennedy Commons atHighway 401.[4]
In Toronto, service on Kennedy Road north of Eglinton Avenue is provided by the 43 Kennedy route. South of Eglinton, routes 113 Danforth (to Danforth Road) and 20 Cliffside (from Park Street to Highview Avenue) travel on Kennedy.
In York Region, Kennedy Road is served mainly byYRT Route 8. Other routes using portions of Kennedy Road are YRT Routes 2 (Milliken, at Milliken GO Train arrival times), 18 (Bur Oak), and 522 (Markham Community Bus).
TheViva Purple andViva Green lines pass throughKennedy Vivastation atHighway 7.
Major roads, highways and streets in Toronto | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North–south |
| ||||||||
| East–west |
| ||||||||
| |||||||||
| |||||||||
