Enough votes cast to put two County roads on worst in Ontario list
Administrator | Jun 08, 2022 | Comments 8
Survey respondents from Prince Edward County outnumbered other locations to put two roads on the CAA’s annual 10 Worst Roads listing for 2022.
Participants can nominate and vote for roads with issues such as potholes, poor signage, traffic light timing and congestion.
While Barker Street and County Road 49 made the Top 10 Ontario Worst Roads in positions three and four, they took first and second spot in the smaller five-slot eastern region category, followed by Queen Street in Kingston, Bridge Street West in Belleville and Landsdowne Street in Peterborough.
Last year, County residents banded together to name Victoria Road and claimed the title of worst road in Ontario. However, the County had allocated funding for repairs on Victoria and it did not appear on the Top 10 this year.
Those nominating County Road 49 have also won that title in past years.
This year, the South Central Ontario Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) stated the campaign saw 3,000 roads nominated from 182 municipalities.
Receiving the most votes for Ontario’s worst, were:
1. Barton Street East, Hamilton
2. Eglinton Avenue West, Toronto
3. Barker Street, Prince Edward County
4. County Road 49, Prince Edward County
5. Carling Avenue, Ottawa
6. Eglinton Avenue East, Toronto
7. Lake Shore Boulevard East, Toronto
8. Finch Avenue West, Toronto
9. Bronson Avenue, Ottawa
10. Queen Street, Kingston
Filed Under: News from Everywhere Else
Queen Elizabeth Public school has been closed for five years now. The stretch of Barker Street between Bowery and Paul was made a one way to accommodate traffic around the school during school days and safety issues. So why does it remain one way, when the school is closed and traffic is no longer an issue. Like the road conditions on this street, this seems just another issue that continues to be neglected by the County. It is time to return Barker St to two way traffic for the full length of it.
Yeah I live on Barker and drive home everyday on 49. No wonder I had to replace the heat shield underneath my car. On Barker there are spots that have absolutely no asphalt. We could plant gardens. Some one said millions, yes we are spending 5 million on main street again for tourists. What about the streets that residents live on and school buses drive on very day. 49 is a disaster. Chunks of the road are missing. Cold patching does nothing. Time to engage our reelected MPP.
What more can possibly be said about the terrible condition of Barker Street. Having lived on the street for 22 years has given us a front row seat to the goings on with traffic and the conditions drivers face. It continues to evolve as drivers change their habits to negotiate the various hazards they face in going west to east, and now driving in the middle of the street or in the wrong lane to avoid damage to vehicles is the latest development. The many trucks with trailers rattling and pounding continue to add more wear and tear to the road that once provided us with the sounds of children going to and from school daily. The need for the county to deal with all the new development appears to have overwhelmed them and left those of us in the older neighbourhoods to fend for ourselves.
I guess this shows that County residents are good at rallying around causes because that’s impressive for such a small population to get the number of votes out for the poll to get two roads on the list. Importantly, it highlights the continuing deterioration of County infrastructure – a boring topic to some, but critically important to any well-functioning community. It’s amazing that we can’t afford to fix our roads.
On a different note, try cycling in parts of the County. The stretch of Royal Road between Brewers and County Road 10 is so bad that last summer I posted a photo of it on a popular cycling app with the caption “Welcome to the Jungle”. The County loves the tourism revenue from cyclists. But the crappy roads are a serious deterrent.
So to those of you who view cyclists as a pain, remember that better roads will bring the hoards while crappy roads will keep them away!
Victoria Road got a major makeover last year. Many potholes have already reappeared. They have been patched by the County but the potholes keep reappearing. Is there no warranty?
It’s good that Barker Street made the list.
Drive westbound on Barker just past the high school, approaching the Paul Street stop sign. There is a ridiculous slumping of the roadway that takes up most of the westbound lane. A person could seriously damage their car if they actually drove through this.
I have no idea what it would cost to resurface this road, as the whole thing is in great disrepair, but surely something could be done to address this particular cavern in the middle of the road in the interim before more thorough work is done.
Can you just imagine the cost with infrastruture replacement to do Barker St from Downes Ave to Johnson St? Multi Millions!
Does CAA take a similar poll for the worst road in all of the provinces?