Every spring, the annual CAA Worst Roads campaign reads like a roll call of Ontario’s most infamous potholes and headaches. This year, as Banwell Road in Windsor claims the dubious honour of worst in the Southwest, Barrie drivers might well breathe a sigh of relief—because, truth be told, it could be worse.
Roads shape the daily rhythm of life. The CAA, joined by the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario, compiles these rankings not out of malice but necessity—spotlighting streets in desperate need of repair, and offering a mirror to communities across Ontario. The 2025 list paints a rough portrait of Windsor, Chatham-Kent, and Essex County, where Banwell Road, Riverside Drive, and their neighbours feature prominently in the region’s Top 5. Yet not a single road from southwestern Ontario cracked the province-wide Top 10, a list dominated by Hamilton and Toronto thoroughfares. For Barrie, this absence is telling.
The data is straightforward: Banwell Road’s condition earned it notoriety, while Sarnia’s Michigan Avenue and Blackwell Sideroad aren’t far behind. According to CAA’s research, a resounding 85 per cent of Ontarians accept that temporary disruption is a small price for lasting improvements. Nadia Todorova of the RCCAO put it plainly: poor roads disrupt everyone’s ability to get around. These are not mere inconveniences—they’re daily realities shaping commutes, business, and quality of life.
Digging deeper, the regional disparities become clear. Southwestern Ontario’s patchwork of rural stretches and urban sprawl faces unique infrastructural challenges. Weather, funding limitations, and the sheer scope of maintenance conspire to keep crews busy. In Windsor and Essex, the story is one of persistent struggle against crumbling asphalt and limited budgets. For Barrie, the narrative—at least this year—is one of relative fortune.
This is not to say Barrie’s roads gleam with perfection. Residents have their gripes, and potholes are nobody’s idea of local charm. But as the Worst Roads campaign reveals, the city has dodged the region’s most notorious pitfalls. The message? It could be worse. This perspective doesn’t excuse complacency, but it does offer a dose of perspective, and perhaps even a faint note of gratitude to those patching and paving in the dead of night.
For Barrie drivers, the takeaway is simple: the city’s roads might jostle and jar, but compared to the nightmares chronicled in Windsor, Chatham-Kent, and Essex, our commutes remain, for now, relatively tame. The challenge is to keep it that way—and to remember, when the next pothole appears, that somewhere south, someone has it rougher.
References:
Banwell Road listed as worst road in the southwestern region: CAA
