For Churchill Downs resident Sue Rollin, driving home is a rollercoaster ride and a pothole obstacle course all in one.
“If you went down it at 40 km, you’re bouncing, your kids are bouncing in the backseat. It’s horrible, there’s potholes, there’s hills and valleys. It’s horrendous,” Rollin said.
“I used to say that we’d give our kids shaken baby syndrome in the stroller because it was so bad,” she said.
Rollin said she pays the same taxes as everybody else, yet people on neighbouring streets have smooth roads.
“Taxes went up this year and we’re not getting anything done with our roads. It’s horrible,” Rollin said.
Rollin’s neighbour Denise Bailas said it’s difficult to dodge the potholes.
“There’s a heave halfway down the street where you either have to drive with your two tires on it, or you’ve got to weave around it, and if there’s cars parked there, good luck,” she said.
“I’m sure it’s wrecked the front end of my car.”
Churchill Downs resident Dwayne McMillan said he sees a lot of traffic on Eighth Avenue North because of a nearby park and ball diamonds.
“I see people scraping just regular cars, bouncing and squeaking,” neighbour Dwayne McMillan said. “It’s just hard on your car, and it’s ugly, and when you have an ugly street, even though we have a nice neighbourhood, it makes the neighbourhood look dingy.”
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Across the city on Dolphin Bay, Gerty Benson’s car rattles as she bumps down her street.
“It’s really bad on the car and tires, and I’m surprised more accidents don’t happen because of the ruts and the snow melts and it’s icy,” she said.
Daffodil Crescent, just a few blocks away from Benson’s home, was also recently repaired.
“I’m paying the same taxes as Daffodil, why are they not fixing Dolphin Bay?” Benson said.
City rates streets
Each year the city conducts an annual inspection of all residential roads.
“We go in and rate the condition of them and get the sidewalks, the condition of the roads, patches, cracks, potholes, that kind of thing, and then they’re rated between excellent, good, fair and poor,” Norman Kyle, City of Regina’s director of roadways and transportation, said.
But if your street is rated “poor,” that doesn’t mean it’s a top priority.
Only 15 per cent of the residential roads budget goes towards poor roads, Kyle said.
That works out to just over a million dollars a year, and it fixes less than one kilometre, he said.
Mayor Michael Fougere asked residents for patience and understanding as the city works on road repair.
“It’s important that we don’t have what’s in good condition fall into disrepair for even more expense, so preventative maintenance is a good policy,” he said. “But we also understand the need for local roads to be done.”
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