 Allen Road | ||||||||||||||||
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| William R. Allen Road | ||||||||||||||||
 Allen Road highlighted in red | ||||||||||||||||
| Route information | ||||||||||||||||
| Maintained by City of Toronto | ||||||||||||||||
| Length | 7.3 km (4.5 mi) | |||||||||||||||
| History | Proposed during the 1950s as the Spadina Expressway, initial sections completed in 1964, completed to Eglinton in 1976 | |||||||||||||||
| Major junctions | ||||||||||||||||
| South end | Eglinton Avenue | |||||||||||||||
 Highway 401 | ||||||||||||||||
| North end | Kennard Avenue (continues as Dufferin Street) | |||||||||||||||
| Location | ||||||||||||||||
| Country | Canada | |||||||||||||||
| Province | Ontario | |||||||||||||||
| Major cities | Toronto | |||||||||||||||
| Highway system | ||||||||||||||||
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Allen Road, formally known as William R. Allen Road, is a short municipal expressway and arterial road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It starts as a controlled-access expressway at Eglinton Avenue West, heading north to just south of Transit Road, then continues as an arterial road north to Kennard Avenue, where it continues as Dufferin Street. Allen Road is named after Metro Toronto chairman William R. Allen and is maintained by the City of Toronto. Landmarks along the road include the Lawrence Heights housing project, Yorkdale Shopping Centre and Downsview Park, and Downsview Airport. A section of the Line 1 Yonge–University subway is located within the median of the expressway from Eglinton Avenue to north of Wilson Avenue.
The portion south of Transit Road was originally constructed as part of the Spadina Expressway project. The Spadina was proposed in the 1950s as a north–south freeway, intended to connect downtown Toronto to the suburbs of North York and to serve the Yorkdale Shopping Centre project; it was only partially built before being cancelled in 1971 due to public opposition. Initially proposed in the 1950s as part of a network of freeways surrounding Toronto, its cancellation in 1971 ended proposals for other proposed expressways into and around Metro Toronto. Despite this, extensions were opened south to Eglinton in 1976 and north to Kennard Avenue in 1982.
In 1983, the Province of Ontario, the City of Toronto and the government of Metropolitan Toronto (Metro) agreed to a land transfer that saw a strip of land south of Eglinton, as well as the right-of-way for the proposed expressway, transferred to the city in exchange for the fully-constructed arterial extension of Highway 400 now known as Black Creek Drive. Various proposals since to extend Allen Road south of Eglinton—either above or below ground—have never gained traction, and the route remains a backlogged stub of the original proposals. Despite this, the decision to cancel the Spadina—and by extension similar expressways into downtowns—has been regarded as one of the defining moments of urban planning in Canada.