Walkability: East Bayfront - 88

A couple years ago, we never would have thought to visit the East Bayfront area for a Walkability feature. Now, it is one of Toronto’s most highly anticipated up-and-coming neighbourhoods!

East Bayfront on WalkScore.com

According to Waterfront Toronto, the East Bayfront neighbourhood spans from Lower Jarvis, east to Parliament Street, and from Lake Ontario up to Lake Shore Boulevard East. For the sake of our Walkability feature, the centre of East Bayfront will be around Lower Sherbourne Street and Queens Quay East.

Using this centrepoint, WalkScore.com gives East Bayfront a Walk Score of 88, declaring it “Very Walkable,” so “most errands can be accomplished on foot.”

While the Walk Score is very impressive, the Transit Score and Bike Score are even higher, coming in at 97 and 94, respectively. A number of north-south bus routes run through East Bayfront, and the famous Waterfront Trail runs east-west through the entire neighbourhood. This is actually one of the only areas of Toronto that has separate bike traffic lights for cyclists.

The amenities of East Bayfront

If you’re familiar with Toronto at all, you’re probably wondering how East Bayfront scored such a high Walk Score. While the east side of East Bayfront, from Lower Jarvis to Lower Sherbourne, features great neighbourhood amenities, the west wide, spanning from Lower Sherbourne to Parliament, is mostly undeveloped (for now).

There are a few amenities like the George Brown College building, a couple coffee places and restaurants, and Sugar Beach, but East Bayfront owes most of its Walk Score points to the nearby St. Lawrence neighbourhood, which is located directly to the north.

You should also note that East Bayfront runs right along the shore of Lake Ontario. WalkScore.com doesn’t take the natural environment into consideration for its scores, so you can probably add a few points purely for enjoyability (if walking along the water’s edge near a beach on a beautiful day is your kinda thing).

New home developments in East Bayfront

Over the next few years, don’t be surprised if East Bayfront’s Walk Score shoots to 100. Currently, there are only two condo developments underway, but they’re doozies.

The first one is Monde Condos by Great Gulf. Designed by internationally renowned architect Moshe Safdie, Monde Condos will be a great addition to the eastern part of Toronto’s skyline. The project will be located at Lower Sherbourne and Lake Shore Boulevard East; it is currently in the preconstruction phase.

The second one is Aqualina at Bayside by Tridel. Aqualina is the first residential phase of a master-plan for the entire west side of the East Bayfront neighbourhood. Developer Hines is bringing offices, retail, and public space to East Bayfront, and Tridel is the exclusive residential partner. When all is said and done, there will be around 1,900 new condo suites, and an entire neighbourhood of shops and services.