It certainly has been a challenging winter but it’s time for the ice and snow to melt and make way for spring and the return of the popular CAA Worst Roads campaign. This major advocacy and safety campaign for CAA Saskatchewan invites all road users including motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, motorcyclists, and transit riders to nominate and vote for their worst, unsafe roads from April 4 to April 25, 2023, at caask.ca/worstroads. Road users can vote for more than one type of road user every 24 hours. The 2023 CAA Top Ten Worst Roads will be announced on April 26, 2023.

New this year is Angel Blair, the CAA Worst Roads Roving Reporter. Blair’s interview with Kim Onrait, Executive Director of Citizen Services, City of Regina, kicks off this year’s campaign. The interview focuses on three Regina roads that made the 2022 CAA Worst Roads Top 10 list which were Mayfair Crescent at #1, Grant Drive at #8 and Ingersoll Crescent in 9th place. Onrait said, “You know the CAA list actually helps sometimes identify some maintenance issues that isn’t necessarily on a list - so we do look at it.”

Watch the Worst Roads Launch Video

On Thursday, April 6th, Shantel Lipp, President and Chief Operating Officer with Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association will talk with Blair about the upcoming road construction season, and why the association supports CAA’s Worst Roads campaign. According to Lipp, “The work that it does and the attention it draws to some of the roads in Saskatchewan is really important. We hear from folks in rural Saskatchewan talking about roads maybe the Ministry of Highways hasn’t identified as a potential hazard, but the local folks know that there are safety issues along that road or they know where the roads are that are being utilized to haul heavy loads of material whether it’s farming or mining.”

Future stakeholder and road user interviews will be scheduled weekly on the CAA Saskatchewan YouTube channel to spotlight other roads that made the 2022 CAA Top 10 Worst Roads list including: Moose Jaw’s 4th Avenue Viaduct which placed #7; Saskatoon’s Circle Drive which was #6; Saskatchewan #47 Springside which placed #2 and also #2 in the 2018 CAA Top Ten Worst Roads.

CAA Saskatchewan’s social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn will be utilized to promote the campaign for worst roads nominations and votes.

The CAA Worst Roads site includes a Google Map Locater that will visualize vote distribution across the province. It will pinpoint the current locations of the nominated roads that are receiving votes. Weekly news releases will be provided by CAA listing the current top ten worst roads and identifying the weekly interviews.

Potholes and crumbling pavement have been the most prominent safety issues during the CAA Worst Roads campaigns. However, cracks, general disrepair, poor signage, congestion, and unsafe infrastructure have also been identified by road users.

Saskatchewan is a land-locked province and has over 250,000 km of roads, more than any other province. That’s a lot of roads to cover, which is why the campaign exists: to invite as many road users as possible to nominate and vote for the roads – municipal or provincial – that are a safety concern to themselves and others.

CAA Worst Roads is an online engagement campaign aimed at drawing attention to our province’s worst, unsafe roads.  At the end of the campaign, reports of roads voted on are distributed to government and business leaders in hopes of sparking conversation and action.

Working towards better roads and safety for all road users is a priority for CAA Saskatchewan.
 

Christine Niemczyk,
Director, Corporate Communications & Public Relations
306.791.4327
christine.niemczyk@caask.ca