Tattered Taylor Avenue tops worst road vote

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This article was published 03/06/2021 (1617 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

YOU voted, they listened, and the results are in: Manitoba’s worst road of 2021 is Winnipeg’s Taylor Avenue.

The Canadian Automobile Association released its list Thursday, after a year-long pandemic hiatus.

After nearly 3,000 votes, nominating more than 420 roads in 55 municipalities, the Grant Park area route made its debut at the top of the list.

Abounding potholes and crumbling infrastructure secured Taylor Avenue the top slot, said CAA government and community relations manager Heather Mack.

“That was a leader from the very beginning, and it’s really just that one stretch of Taylor leading up to Pembina (highway) that is crumbling,” said Mack. “You can’t really drive more than about 20 km/h without doing some serious damage to your vehicle — so that one I think was a clear winner.”

Provincial highways across the province took the rest of the top five slots, with Provincial Road 307, largely in the Whiteshell Provincial Park, coming in second place and PR 250, between Souris and Rivers, making its debut in third.

“Traditionally, these lists are dominated by City of Winnipeg streets, but this year, we saw a lot more provincial highways moving up — and they were voted on by Winnipeggers,” Mack said.

Mack attributed the new-found attention to rural roadways to a combination of Manitobans “exploring our own backyard” as a result of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, and many years of road renewal investment from the City of Winnipeg.

The city plans to spend more than $150 million on road renewal in 2021, and continued investments over the last five years has helped knock Winnipeg streets lower on the list, CAA said.

St. James neighbourhood’s Empress Street — which topped the worst roads list in both 2019 and 2018 — dropped to 10th slot this year, marking significant improvements.

Winnipeg’s Saskatchewan Avenue, St. James Street, Sherwin Road, and Waller Avenue took the sixth to ninth slots, respectively.

“We commend the city for doing that kind of investment; Coun. (Scott) Gillingham and the mayor (Brian Bowman) have been very responsive to road renewal issues,” Mack said.

For motorists, potholes and traffic congestion made for bad roadways, while cyclists and pedestrians (who made up 10 per cent of this year’s voters) highlighted potholes, poor cycling infrastructure and unsafe crossings as their top concerns.

Mack said the number of cyclist voters has gone up in recent years, a trend the CAA is hoping will continue in years to come.

“We want to engage more cyclists because, quite honestly, they have a view of the roads that’s put them in a much more vulnerable position. They feel the bumps and cracks in the roads more than any other motorist,” she said.

CAA plans to share its results with partners such as Bike Winnipeg, as well as the City of Winnipeg and the provincial government.

Manitoba’s Worst Roads 2021 is the ninth year of a month-long online voting campaign run by CAA Manitoba, a travel and automotive insurance company, aimed at bringing attention to the worst roads in the province.

CAA groups across Canada run similar campaigns in their own regions.

julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jsrutgers