We’re number three! We’re number three! Toronto’s roads no longer the worst in Ontario

Toronto might not have the most progressive mayor-elect in Canada—curse you, Calgary!—but we can still hold our heads high now that the Canadian Automobile Association has released its list of Ontario’s worst roads. The good news mediocre news is that while Toronto’s streets fill four of the top 10 slots, we’re no longer the worst of the worst: that honour goes to Sioux Lookout (if we’ve got this right, that’s about 250 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay). According to the National Post, Steeles Avenue has gone from worst to first.

Last year, Toronto’s Steeles Avenue sat at the bottom of the Canadian Automobile Association’s list of Worst Roads in Ontario for a second year in a row. Now Steeles is the best road in the province, after a multimillion dollar upgrade, but Toronto still claims eight spots out of the 20 worst offenders.

The CAA released the results of their seventh-annual poll Thursday, collecting feedback from over 7,000 people using online and paper voting about the best and worst roads.

According to the Toronto Star, it cost $15 million to improve Steeles to the point where Toronto no longer has roads as bad as a rural town whose residents have to choose whether to shop in Thunder Bay or Winnipeg. So, yay us. (Sioux Lookout, meanwhile, is in a probably doomed legal battle to try to force the province to pay for its roads.)

No doubt with Rob Ford as the incoming mayor, we will see a massive improvement in Toronto’s roads. Dare we hope for the day when none of Toronto’s roads are on the worst-road list? Right after the subways are all hitched to unicorns, no doubt.

• Toronto claims eight of Ontario’s worst roads [National Post]
• Ontario’s worst road no longer belongs to Toronto [Toronto Star]
• Northwest road declared province’s worst [The Chronicle Journal]