Voice your opinion of worst roads

There’s no shortage of reaction to a call from the Canadian Automobile Association to name the worst roads in south central Ontario.

It seems the brutal winter is making our roads the worst they’ve been in four decades.

If you talk to anyone, they’ll tell you the roads are not only bumpy — they’re costing them money to repair the damage potholes are causing their vehicles. So they’re happy to hear that the CAA is putting a focus on roads that need serious attention.

It’s no wonder the city of Hamilton gets about one hundred phone calls and emails a day about potholes.

Mike Christian is with the Hamilton public Works Department: “It’s hard to stay on top of it when there’s so many coming at you at once.”

But cities and communities across Ontario will have it coming at them even harder once the Canadian Automobile Association completes it’s worst roads campaign in just four weeks. but Mike Christian says he welcomes their findings: “It helps us identify and it also gives us a bit of a backdrop to say our citizens are complaining about these roads. We need to do something, we need to react, we need to come up with a game plan. If we haven’t already identified those roads, we can now.”

Every year the CAA asks people to vote for the worst roads in Ontario. It says potholes can cause a lot of damage to a vehicle and cost lots of money.

“Pretty much you can’t go over speed bumps, potholes, you’re hitting your bumpers, exhaust. Depending on what it is, it could cost hundreds, if not thousands.”

At the launch Tuesday, the CAA urged the province to dedicate a portion of the money it collects from gas taxes to fix roads, bridges and highways.

Right now, the province does give some gas tax money to municipalities, but not on a permanent basis. As for drivers and the CAA worst roads campaign: “If it’s effective that’s great. But if it doesn’t do anything I’ll know next spring if my vote counted, won’t I.”

The city of Burlington is creating an app you can download on to your smart phone to tell them about bad roads in that area. Hamilton says just give them a call. But here is the link if you want to take part in the CAA’s worst roads campaign and get involved at pointing the finger at the worst roads in Ontario.