Help Pave the Way to Safer Roads: Ontario's Worst Roads Campaign Makes its Return to Highlight Substandard Infrastructure

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - March 23, 2012) - After an 18-month hiatus, the ever-popular Ontario Worst Roads campaign is making its return in an effort to help local residents bring their crumbling roads, bridges and highways to the attention of municipal politicians.

Now in its ninth year, CAA North & East Ontario (CAANEO) is proud to again be part of the campaign, which launches March 27, 2012 with the theme "Help Pave the Way to Safer Roads."

The Worst Roads campaign makes its return with a few changes, including foregoing the traditional Top 20 for a new Top 10 list, which will aim to give greater prominence to the roads that make the dubious final cut. With the campaign taking place in the spring this year, the change in season also provides an opportunity to highlight damaged infrastructure when it is in its worst state following the spring thaw.

"This is a campaign that resonates extremely well with our Members, the general public and politicians. We are confident that the recent changes will not only help garner more interest and bolster the campaign's overall success, but more importantly will encourage the senior levels of government to commit to providing long-term, sustainable funding in order to help repair Ontario's decaying transportation infrastructure," said Korey Kennedy, Manager of Public & Government Affairs for CAANEO. "We are encouraging motorists, cyclists and pedestrians alike to cast their ballot and have a say in order to help raise awareness regarding Ontario's worst roads."

What isn't changing is the campaign's drive to have senior levels of government provide Ontario municipalities with long-term sustainable funding to repair damaged and aging infrastructure. Since the campaign's inception in 2003, more than 90 percent of the roadways nominated to the Worst Roads list have been repaired or are scheduled to be repaired in the near future.

Additionally, the campaign has proven in recent years that any municipality - regardless of size - can have a road deemed as one of the worst in the province. Nothing demonstrated this better than in 2010 when the small northern community of Sioux Lookout banned together to nominate a local roadway, Pelican Falls Road, which took first place in that year's Worst Roads list. Already, plans are in the works to have this road fixed after several First Nations communities came together to fund the repairs.

Residents in other communities throughout North & East Ontario have also had a strong voice in past years to ensure their damaged roadways are noticed, with Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Ottawa and Pembroke all having roads ranked among the worst in the province during the 2010 Worst Roads campaign. Plans have been made to improve many of these roadways, with construction already complete in some areas or about to get underway.

Road users can have their say once again by casting a ballot at one of the eight CAANEO Travel Stores or online at www.worstroads.ca, which provides access to a new voting portal that is integrated with Google Maps and real-time voting. The website will be live following the launch of the campaign on March 27, 2012.

Over the course of the next four weeks, the campaign, which is sponsored by CAA North & East Ontario, CAA South Central Ontario, CAA Niagara and Ontario Good Roads Association, will travel to communities throughout the province to reiterate the importance of making concerns about decaying infrastructure known. Voting ends April 24, 2012.

For more than 100 years, the Canadian Automobile Association has provided travel, emergency road services, insurance and advocacy for its Members.