Don't Drive Down the Middle of the Middle Road!

Toronto Star, October 9, 1937. Click on image for larger version.

When the Middle Road (today's Queen Elizabeth Way) opened as a divided four-lane highway in the fall of 1937, it took some drivers awhile to adjust to this new style of road. The Toronto Star ran a photo essay on some of the problems drivers were causing, primarily staying within lanes. This is as much a problem driving along the GTA's expressways in 2018 as it was 80 years ago.

Toronto Star, October 9, 1937. Click on image for larger version.

Toronto Star, October 9, 1937. Click on image for larger version.

Before its conversion to a proto-expressway, the Middle Road was a back road, which some nighttime drivers still believed it was.

Toronto Star, November 23, 1937.

The Globe and Mail believed the Middle Road signalled "a fresh start in Ontario's beautification."

Globe and Mail, October 9, 1937.

Globe and Mail, November 6, 1937.

Among the modern touches: Canada's first cloverleaf interchange, built at what is now the Hurontario Street exit off the QEW.

Globe and Mail, November 23, 1937.