roads

We take on some of Atlantic Canada’s worst roads in a new Cadillac

In most parts of the country, carping about the state of this nations roads is an art form. New expletives have been crafted solely for use when ones brand-new set of winter tires slam into an unexpected pothole. Fillings have been jarred loose by washboard road surfaces. Alignment mechanics rejoice the former, dentists do brisk business with the latter. Hey, at least someone is making bank off our rough roads.Yelling into a vacuum yields little, so CAA holds an annual campaign in which Canadian road users including cyclists, pedestrians, motorists, and users of public transit are encouraged to cast a vote for what they feel is the worst road in their region. Every road is eligible, regardless of surface type or length.Across Canada, wild temperature swings and an abundance of road salt conspire to scupper even the best paving job. Jagged lines cut every surface like a botched episiotomy, with macadam crumbling like day-old sponge cake. Armed with CAA’s list of Ten Worst Roads in the Maritimes and the keys to a 2020 Cadillac XT6 crossover, we decided to seek out these potholed pavements in an effort to gauge the state of our roads.Would the Cadillac provide a comfortable journey? Will this infrastructure hammer our spines into oblivion? Did I make a theme-based playlist filled with The Stones and the score from Rocky?The answers to those questions were yes, no and an emphatic yes.Our pothole-tamer: the Cadillac XT6First, the Cadillac. The luxury arm of General Motors has been fiddling with their Standard of the World for a few years now, rolling out two new sedans and three new crossovers in quick succession.The XT6 is the largest of these, acting as a draw for customers seeking a snazzy three-row machine with all-wheel-drive. Cadillac already has a three-row SUV in its quiver of course, but the large-and-in-charge Escalade scares away some customers thanks to its bulk and truck-based roots. For anyone trading out of an Acura MDX or Volvo XC90, the XT6 will be much more approachable.Outside, the Cadillac certainly looks the part, with our Sport-trimmed tester dipped in $900 worth of inky Stellar Black Metallic paint. Unlike the Premium Luxury models, the Sport eschews all exterior brightwork save for a spear along its lower flanks and one edging the perimeter of its front grille. A completely blacked-out grille, bookended with headlights narrowed like the eyes of a stern headmaster, is a dealer-installed accessory and should be fitted to every XT6 regardless of colour.Pine Glen RoadPointing the long XT6 nose containing a 3.6-litre V6 engine making 310 horsepower towards New Brunswick, we set off in search of what CAA has deemed to be some of Atlantic Canadas worst roads. Plugging the street of Pine Glen Road just outside of Moncton into the Cadillacs satnav is easy thanks to recent changes. Now deploying a rotary dial incorporating jog functions into the system, CUE is no longer an exercise in frustration.The drive to Pine Glen Road is an exercise in cutting through early morning fog on the Cobequid Pass, a stretch of road notorious for its pristine pavement but reliably horrid weather. With no sinkhole (yet) consuming the Trans-Canada Highway near Oxford, we carried on to Moncton, the land of St. Hubert and Jean Coutu pharmacies.Turning on to Pine Glen Road, a long stretch connecting far flung communities with the city of Moncton, we find pristine pavement. A quick check of the satnav confirms we are indeed on the correct path, even if the macadam were traversing looks as far from a Worst Road contender as your author looks like a Chippendale model. What happened?Councils take the CAA Worst Roads lists seriously, is what happened. A few clicks down Pine Glen Road we happen upon a large road crew, feverishly laying new tar atop the old crumbled surface. Stopping to chat with the site foreman, he explained theyve been on the job since August, upgrading a road thats heavily travelled by woods trucks and the general public alike.Using heavily calloused hands to adjust his white hard hat, the man looked proud to be working on the project. If the sign posted by a local church is anything to go by, locals are pretty proud as well.All good things must come to an end, of course, and the new pavement disappears as one drives deeper into Pine Glen Road. By the time were out of the residential areas and into the wooded areas, its easy to see why this road made CAAs top ten. Its most heavily travelled section, however, is now billiard-table smooth thanks in no small part to The List and a crew of hard-working pavers.Working the lozenge-shaped shifter to handle a three-point turn in a roadside cutout was more frustrating than strictly necessary, given the button-and-lever dance one has to do in order to engage reverse gear. GM is not likely to change its design anytime soon, since the thing has popped up in everything from this Cadillac to Buicks to the Chevy Bolt. Electronic shifters are tremendous,
Origin: We take on some of Atlantic Canada’s worst roads in a new Cadillac

These are the worst roads in Quebec, as ranked by CAA

Large deep pothole in Montreal street, Canada.Marc Bruxelle / Getty Earlier this year, nearly 21,000 Quebecers voted on what they felt were the ten worst roads in their province.Part of a yearly initiative by CAA to spurn various levels of government into road-fixing action, the organizations Worst Roads campaign seeks input from all road users, from cyclists and public transit riders to motorists.So buckle up and hold on to your poutine as we take a look at what the voters in CAA-Quebecs survey deemed the provinces most maddening macadam.The crew at CAA recognizes while every road listed deserves its spot in the top 10, dozens of others could just as well have made it into one of the top slots. Armed with the list, CAA-Quebec went to municipal and provincial authorities and asked them to make a pledge to repair the crumbling infrastructure, promising to report back on that progress. Spox for CAA assert that lists like these do often result in some form of roadwork, whether it be a complete repave or a hurried patch job. About eight months after last years list was published, one road was fully repaired while four more were currently under the steely gaze of a construction supervisor. Two more were on the provinces to-do list, meaning seven of the ten roads received attention less than twelve months after the list was written.Boulevard Gouin Est has been a perpetual habitant of these lists, having the dubious accomplishment of showing up every year since the lists inception. It landed in first spot this year, first spot last year, and somewhere in the top 10 at various other times. Running about fifty kilometres from Senneville in the west to Pointe-aux-Trembles in the east, it is said to be the longest stretch of road on the island. Work has started on it and will continue well into 2020.Here is the full list for those who wish to plug them into Waze as routes to avoid.Boulevard Gouin Est, Montreal Montée du Bois-Franc, Saint-Adolphe-d’Howard Chemin Craig, Lévis Rue Newton, Boucherville Boulevard du Grand-Héron, Saint-Jérôme Route 389, Côte-Nord Traverse de Laval, Lac-Beauport Chemin Cadieux, L’Ange-Gardien Chemin Saint-Henri, Mascouche Rang Saint-Martin, Saguenay Drive safe, kids and watch out for the
Origin: These are the worst roads in Quebec, as ranked by CAA

These are the worst roads in Atlantic Canada

A car hits a pothole on a city street, throwing up water and debris.Getty A favoured pastime of most Canadians, beyond sharpening their hockey skates and perpetually cursing the Leafs, is complaining about the state of our nations roads. Sure, some are in good nick, but most seem to have been lifted wholesale from rural Beirut or the Marianas Trench.Its no secret repair shops do brisk business fixing tires and completing four-wheel alignments in a good part of this country.CAA, the boffins wholl arrange for a tow truck to effect a roadside rescue or emergency extrication, have asked denizens of Atlantic Canada to vote on what they think are the ten worst roads in their region.Across the four provinces, New Brunswick has the dubious honour of housing the lions share of dreadful macadam on this list, with five roads making the cut. Newfound Labrador has three and Nova Scotia has two. Apparently, Prince Edward Island has great roads. Must be the starch from all those potatoes.Tripp Settlement Road (Keswick Ridge, N.B.) Waterford Road (Waterford, N.B.) Markland Road (Colinet, N.L.) Indian Meal Line (Torbay, N.L.) New Brunswick 905 (Petitcodiac, N.B.) Meadowville Station Road (Pictou, N.S.) Witless Bay Line (Trepassey, N.L.) New Brunswick 480 between Rogersville and Kouchibouguac (N.B.) South Uniacke Road (Mount Uniacke, N.S.) Pine Glen Road (Pine Glen, N.B.) According to CAA, its annual Worst Roads campaign provides a platform for Canadians to make roads safer by telling municipal and provincial lawmakers which roads need attention. It also helps governments understand that roadway improvements are a priority for all residents, not just gearheads with gasoline in their veins. As you may have surmised, each region of Canada gets to vote on its own list. Well profile others in the coming weeks. Every road in the four Atlantic provinces was eligible, regardless of surface type or length. All road users including cyclists, pedestrians, motorists and users of public transit were encouraged to cast their vote and make their opinion count.Because your author is apparently some sort of masochist this is news to me well be taking a comfortably-suspended luxury car on a tour to sample the vast majority of roads on this list. Look for that story to appear in the coming weeks along with a requisition for a gross of
Origin: These are the worst roads in Atlantic Canada

Nova Scotia finishes up repairs to roads after Dorian damage

A toppled building crane is draped over a new construction project in Halifax on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019.Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian Press Earlier this month, summer storm Dorian wreaked havoc across the province of Nova Scotia, leaving a trail of damage and destruction in its wake after moving into the region with Category 2 hurricane-force winds.Trees were uprooted, a crane was toppled, and some infrastructure was ruined. Fortunately, it was primarily just items that were damaged, not people. Stuff, after all, can be replaced.Which is what the Nova Scotia government is doing as we speak. Nearly a month after the storm blew through on September 7th, the clean-up continues, especially on the transportation front.According to a spokesperson with the provinces Department of Transportation and Urban Renewal, road infrastructure actually fared pretty well overall when Dorian decided to make its presence known. The majority of provincial road closures were in Cumberland County in the northwest corner of the province due to culvert washouts, downed trees and busted powerlines.The area of Kings County, closer to Halifax, also experienced a small number of road closures for similar reasons, and department staff responded to one culvert washout in Halifax Suburban. Compared to what residents of the Bahamas endured, your authors province got off rather lightly.Most repairs are now complete, with government spox estimating total infrastructure damage from the storm in the ballpark of $1.5 million. As with all repairs, the crew’s primary concern is public safety, so repairs were prioritized to that effect. In that vein, clean-up of the collapsed crane mentioned at the top of this story has also been taken over by the Nova Scotia government, as public safety trumped financial liability. Harbourside Engineering Consultants and RD Crane are listed as the two companies hired to remove the crane, a decision made by government after it apparently became clear that finger-pointing about potential liability was likely to paralyze the clean-up. With occupied residential buildings nearby, the current focus is getting the thing removed safely. Government will determine who to go after to recoup their money at a later
Origin: Nova Scotia finishes up repairs to roads after Dorian damage

Should e-scooters stay on roads or sidewalks? Calgary, Edmonton pick opposite sides

The e-Scooter program is causing some concerns for motorists and pedestrians in Calgary on Monday, July 29, 2019.Darren Makowichuk / Calgary Herald As the e-scooter craze continues to grip the world, Calgarians have proven they are not immune to the novelty, racking up 300,000 rides since the 16-month pilot project started mid-July.The City of Edmonton, whose own year-long pilot project started last Friday, doesnt have the total number of rides so far but like in Calgary, Lime and Bird are the only two e-scooter vendors.The regulations in each city, however, are vastly different in one specific way: Calgary riders are allowed on sidewalks but prohibited on roads, whereas Edmonton riders are allowed on roads but prohibited on sidewalks.Neither city requires riders to wear helmets when operating the e-scooters and both are allowed in bike lanes. Both cities have capped the scooters speed at 20 km/h.There are currently 1,000 Lime scooters and 500 Bird scooters in Calgary and 200 Lime and 400 Bird scooters in Edmonton.Alberta Health Services said there have been no reported injuries from e-scooters in Edmonton since they were introduced on August 16 and 17. Calgary has seen 200 e-scooter related injuries since their introduction.Nathan Carswell, Calgarys shared mobility program manager, said there have been 185 calls made to the 311 line, and about 70 per cent of them are negative.Allowing sidewalk riding is probably our top complaint, he said. In saying that, its usually people who feel like a scooter sped by them without alerting them and then it evens out below that from people concerned about the speed to improperly parked scooters and general feedback. A Lime e-scooter rider commutes on Riverwalk in Calgary on Monday, July 29, 2019. Azin Ghaffari / Postmedia A spokesman for the City of Edmonton said its decision to allow scooters on roadways with a maximum speed limit of 50 km/h followed a review of collision data and e-scooter projects in other cities.They ensure people with scooters could still have easy access around Edmonton, the province of Alberta mandated e-scooters could be on roads provided they had a headlamp, tail lamp, a rear reflector, a working handbrake and a kickstand, a spokesman said, adding 80 to 90 per cent of Edmontons roads have a speed limit up to 50 km/h.The City of Calgary worked with existing bylaws to expedite the scooter rollout process, Carswell said, whereas Edmonton took its time to create the bylaws that will govern e-scooter use in that city.Im not trying to say one is doing it right and the other is not, I think thats the beauty of having these controlled pilots is that each citys approaching it how they feel most comfortable, he said. We can look at whats worked in Edmonton and Calgary and whats not and work with the province in the long run to regulate and ensure these devices are considered as part of a new transportation option and done the right way.When the snow flies in Calgary, or sometime around the first of November, both companies will be taking the scooters to their local warehouses until weather improves in the spring to bring them back.Carswell said its during this off-season that the city will look at how the project is going, whats working and what could be improved.The purpose of the pilot is to make some tweaks and monitor the project well look at what people are saying, what kind of ability do we have with the companies to curb this a little better, he said. Once we have a better data set and understanding, we can see what the trend
Origin: Should e-scooters stay on roads or sidewalks? Calgary, Edmonton pick opposite sides

Cadillac’s super-smart Super Cruise finds even more roads

A steering wheel light bar and cluster icons indicates the status of Super Cruise™ and will prompt the driver to return their attention to the road ahead if the system detects driver attention has turned away from the road too long. Super Cruise is active (green light bar) in this image.Cadillac Detroit, MICHIGAN—Cadillac’s semi-autonomous Super Cruise system is about to get a major update, with more roads ready for use. We can tell you from experience, it takes a big leap of faith to trust at first, but once over this hurdle, it works to perfection and, unlike other “traffic” assistants, it works at any speed—it was perfectly happy doing the piloting on the highway at 120 km/h. Once on a divided highway, the driver centers the car in the lane and, when ready, activates the system. Once activated, a light bar in the steering wheel turns green. Super Cruise now does all of the driving, and it does so without the need for the driver to have their hands on the steering wheel. To pass a car is simple. First signal, make the lane change, and when centered in the new lane, the system automatically picks up where it left off. The impressive part is that fairly sharp bends were taken smoothly and without the wheel-wrenching common in older systems. The fact it did this at the aforementioned 120 km/h and without the need for my itchy hands to step in was very impressive. The system is also smart. For example, when passing a large truck in the adjacent lane rather than hugging the centre of the lane, it moved left in the lane to give the truck, and me, some welcome breathing room. To ensure the driver has not nodded off or taken to texting because the system is in charge, a small camera mounted on the steering column monitors the driver—look away from the road and the system turns the light bar red to tell them to get a grip. It is quick to react, taking about four seconds to note I was not watching the road. If action is not taken, it goes on to vibrate the seat to wake a potentially drowsy driver. If there’s no action after the seat warning, the car will bring itself to a stop, and OnStar contacts the driver to find out if there is a medical emergency. If that’s the case, assistance is dispatched immediately. Currently there are 208,000 kilometres of highway in Canada and the US that have been mapped by LIDAR, the high-resolution imaging Super Cruise uses to interpret its surroundings, which allows it to operate without an on-board LIDAR. Using this hi-res mapping, cameras and radars, it navigates a dived highway with remarkable accuracy. By the time the CT4-V and CT5-V debut next year, the LIDAR-mapped roads will have grown to 320,000 km of Super Cruise-capable roads. The plus is the system is being upgraded from the current controlled-access divided highways to include divided highways with intersections and traffic lights. In the case of railroad crossings, pedestrian crossings, stoplights or stop signs, Super Cruise turns the steering wheel light bar red, which tells the driver to take control. Once through the intersection it resumes the driving duties. Interestingly, an intersection controlled by a yellow flashing light will see the system negotiate it without handing over to the driver. The only pause for thought is what happens if the amber flashing light changes to a red flashing light, making it a four-way stop intersection? Between map updates there is the risk the system will run the red, mistaking it for the stored flashing-amber. That aside, Super Cruise is streets ahead, literally, of its
Origin: Cadillac’s super-smart Super Cruise finds even more roads

Eglinton Avenue East tops CAA’s worst roads list

Traffic moves past closed lanes at the corner of Eglinton Avenue and Dufferin Street in Toronto.Darren Calabrese Motorists detest Eglinton Ave. East. It has been voted the most horrible road in a city rife with complaints about bumps, holes and congestion, according to the Canadian Automobile Association’s (CAA) list of worst streets for 2019. Toronto’s Eglinton Ave. E. is currently undergoing one of the largest transit expansions in North America (construction of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT), which has significantly impacted road conditions during construction, says a CAA release. Taking the second spot was Riverdale Dr., in Washago – north of Orillia – and third place went to Dufferin St., also in Toronto. In 2018, the title of worst road went to Eglinton Ave. W., and one can again point to the building of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT; that construction is expected to continue until 2021. “While the condition of Eglinton Ave. is of concern to the public, many of the challenges for all road users will hopefully be resolved with the completion of the Eglinton Crosstown project,” CAA’s Raymond Chan said in a release. “The gridlock and congestion that many motorists are currently experiencing should ease as construction winds down, repairs to the road are made and as more people choose new transit options.” Chan added some roads have fallen off the CAA’s annual list. Those campaign success stories are because governments are prioritizing infrastructure through multi-year capital investments, Chan said. CAA will continue to advocate for longer-term dedicated infrastructure funding to help municipalities prepare, plan and budget and execute on repairs backlogs and capital projects. About three-quarters of the votes for this year’s list of worst roads came from drivers; 12 per cent were from cyclists, and another 12 per cent of votes came from pedestrians. Potholes and congestion were the top
Origin: Eglinton Avenue East tops CAA’s worst roads list

Autonomous cars could worsen traffic on Canadian roads, experts warn

TomTom’s 2013 congestion index ranks Vancouver the most congested among North American cities, ahead of L.A., ahead of Chicago, and even New York. Toronto ranked 7th on the list.Christina Ryan When you picture the future of autonomous transportation, you’re probably not picturing gridlock traffic. The robots are supposed to be smarter and more efficient than us humans, right? Some transport researchers and experts are warning traffic may get worse before it gets better as society moves toward automation in transportation. We may see increases in total vehicle traffic in Canada as significant as 30 per cent, says Todd Litman, the executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute in British Columbia, in a recent interview with Global News. “Cities need to start looking into regulations,” he said, warning the issue is approaching quicker than many realize. Today, for example, the average Toronto commuter spends 34 minutes in their vehicle. If Litman’s prediction proves accurate, that number could increase to as high as 45 minutes. Michal Antkiewicz is a research associate at the University of Waterloo who has been studying the potential future impacts of autonomous vehicles (AV). He told Global that though the problem is “at least five years away” in Canada, some U.S. centres are already feeling the strain. The issue, he explains, is the vehicles’ unwillingness to bend or break the rules, combined with mankind’s drive to do just that. “(AVs) will never break any traffic rules,” he said. “If there is a speed of 50 km/h, (AVs) will go 50 km/h. (AVs) will wait for an efficient gap to merge into traffic. Where a human would bend the rules to make progress, autonomous vehicles will be more cautious.” So, while having an AV that’s able to circle the block while you pop into the corner store for some eggs is undeniably convenient, being stuck on an on-ramp behind a robotic car that’s unable to merge into traffic that’s moving 5 km/h over the speed limit is anything but.
Origin: Autonomous cars could worsen traffic on Canadian roads, experts warn

41 per cent of Montreal roads in great shape, better than 2015: city

Construction detour road sign in Montreal Wednesday December 7, 2016.John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette A total of 41 per cent of Montreal’s 1,665-kilometre network of arterial roads are in “excellent or good condition,” a 2018 inventory of the city’s main thoroughfares has found. Sylvain Ouellet, the city’s executive committee member responsible for infrastructure, noted in a statement late May that only 21 per cent of the city’s main roads received a passing grade when the last checkup was conducted in 2015. “The investments made by the city of Montreal have borne fruit,” he wrote. “Montrealers can see that more and more roads have been redone and it shows. Our administration will continue on this course.” The latest survey, which was conducted between July 4 and Aug. 19, 2018, and examined 14,114 streets, found that 39 per cent of the city’s  roads were in “very bad or bad” condition, compared with a finding of 55 per cent in the same category in 2015. The examination included assessments of cracks and fissures in road surfaces, variations in road levels and ruts caused by vehicular wear and tear, as well as potholes. The city will divide its road assessments into two categories—arterial roads that will be  examined every two years because of heavier traffic, and local, less-travelled streets that will be inventoried every four years. The next assessment of local roads is scheduled to take place this year. The complete, street-by-street results of the city’s latest inventory can be found on its open data
Origin: 41 per cent of Montreal roads in great shape, better than 2015: city