Rural roads rise to the top as CAA's Worst Roads Campaign voting closes today

CAA Manitoba's Worst Roads campaign is quickly coming to a close.

Manitobans have until the end of today to vote for the province's most notorious roadway. 

Ewald Friesen is the Manager of government and community relations for CAA Manitoba. He says one trend they're noticing is that more and more rural roads are making the top of the list. 

"Historically, it has always been very Winnipeg-centered and a little bit increasingly in Brandon," Friesen explained. "But this year we've seen folks get together in Steinbach, Stonewall, Selkirk, Brandon and other communities outside Winnipeg. I don't know what it says about the Winnipeg roads. I doubt that this means that we're all good in Winnipeg. However, you know we're watching this very, very closely. We're quite encouraged by this."

Last year, 18th Street in Brandon was number one on the list, and Friesen says this drew a lot of attention. 

"We saw Premier Wab Kinew and Minister Lisa Naylor get up in question period and commit to fixing our number one worst road," said Friesen. "They coordinated very quickly with the city, and a couple of months later, there was a press release saying that the job was getting started, and a few months after that, wouldn't you know, the road was getting fixed." 

Friesen says that 96 percent of Manitobans are concerned or very concerned with the state of our roads, 84 percent say the roads are not being fixed in a timely way, and 61 percent say the problem is getting worse. 

"So rather than complain to your mechanic or share these frustrations with your spouse or colleague, take it to your friends here at CAA, and we'll take it to the folks who can who can have these road maintenance issues addressed."

Anyone interested in voting is encouraged to visit caaworstroads.ca. More than one vote can be cast per day. 

The official list will be released later this spring.