It’s a grassroots, populist, community-based project that has become CAA’s single most successful infrastructure and road safety campaign. Canadians vote online for their local “worst road,” based on criteria such as pedestrian and cyclist safety, congestion, or crumbling infrastructure. Results are compiled and displayed online by CAA’s member Clubs, reflecting their local issues. Clubs then use the results to lobby local and provincial (state) governments for improvements.

Not only do thousands of Canadians vote every year, and thousands more talk about the campaign through media coverage and social media, but the project achieves measurable, quick success. The southern Ontario club, based in Toronto, has been able to report that 18 of the top 20 Worst Roads in its region, as voted by residents, were all slated to be fixed within months of the campaign. Similar results have been achieved by the other CAA Clubs. One of the secrets to the campaign has been to pre-condition politicians that the results are coming, and that they can use this as evidence within their own bureaucracies to advance infrastructure. In this way, Worst Roads works with politicians instead of embarrassing them. When citizens speak through their CAA Clubs, governments listen!