Bloor Street officially the worst
Pothole-ridden road named the worst in Durham by CAA
CAA recently named Bloor Street East the worst road in the Halton-Peel-York-Durham corridor. Susan Siopis, the region’s director of transportation and field services, says the work being done on the road should be complete by mid-summer.
By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express
Many who have driven on Bloor Street East would call it the worst road they’ve ever driven on. CAA agrees.
The street was named as the worst road for the Halton-Peel-York-Durham corridor in the latest edition of the annual list.
Another Durham road, Ashburn Road in Port Perry, came in third.
Caroline Greech, who works in government relations with CAA’s South Central Ontario division, says the list is based on four criteria: potholes, congestion, poor traffic signal timing and confusing road signs.
“People are voting for various reasons, but potholes was the reason behind Bloor Street East,” she said.
Those voting for worst road had the chance to submit comments on why they voted the way they did.
“Bloor Street between Wilson and Simcoe is a total disaster,” reads one comment.
“It’s like World War 2. I know you couldn’t drink a cup of coffee going that road.”
“I drive a truck and I am afraid I’m going to break something.”
“It is time to give all these roads that are full of pot holes and other issues a face lift.”
Greech said she didn’t have exact numbers available on how many people in the region voted – she said it was in the thousands – but did say there were more than 16,000 votes province-wide.
To find the province’s worst road overall, you’d have to travel to Timmins and drive on Algonquin Boulevard West. If you keep driving east, you’ll land on the second worst road in the province, Algonquin Boulevard East.
With traffic reduced to one side of the road and numerous potholes, Susan Siopis, the region’s director of transportation and field services, says Bloor deserves its place at the top of the list of worst roads – but it won’t be there much longer.
“It deserved to be at the top of the list at the time, but it’s about to probably not be on the list for a very long time after this,” she told The Oshawa Express. “Our project is going to be wrapping up mid-summer. We’ve repaired or replaced all of the undergrounds and now we’re reconstructing the entire road surface. It’ll be a beautiful thing when it’s done, and it’s not far from being done.”