It's a kind of popularity contest, but it's best not to win.

CAA's annual ranking of the region's worst roads is a list where only the worst make it to the top.

After a hard winter -- and a bumper crop of potholes -- there are lots of candidates.

With spring, comes a great thaw, revealing roads that have been ripped and damaged by the elements.

Avoiding potholes as he drives up to his home has been a bit of an obstacle course for Fredericton resident Bill Lebans.

“With the one down the street, you see the pylon,” Lebans said. “We pretty much always avoid those and avoid that one. You feel it, there's no question.”

At this time of year, potholes are being mended by temporary asphalt “cold patches” that last between a day and several weeks.

Municipal and provincial roadway operations point to a rough winter as causing extra damage to the roads going into spring.

“Underneath that asphalt there's a structure of gravel that is there to support the traffic. When water gets in there and freezes and thaws, it weakens that structure,” said Mike Walker, the manager of Fredericton’s roadway ops.

Bill Oliver, New Brunswick’s Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure says it’s been “an extremely harsh winter.”

“The freezing and the thawing has really created a bigger problem than we've had in the past,” he said.

CAA's worst roads campaign kicked off Tuesday, two of the worst streets in the Fredericton area, Regent and Smythe Streets both rank at No. 13 on CAA's worst roads list. But a street that tops both of them is not too far away -- route 616 in Keswick Ridge. Residents agree and say that this year, it's worse than usual.

“It's very bumpy,” said resident Elizabeth Clavet. “I've never seen it that bumpy.”

Clavet says even pedestrians have to watch out here. Route 616 is already tricky to maneuver on by car and foot, and potholes are making it worse.

“You have to be careful,” Clavet says. “As someone says, you don't want to turn an ankle or anything like that.”

Elsewhere in the Maritimes, the situation isn't any better.

In Halifax, potholes adding to already rough conditions, where discarded debris and hubcaps add to a challenging drive.

And until temperatures allow for hot asphalt to go down, it’s a problem that Maritimers will be seeing – and feeling -- for a while.

“We'll be working on potholes well into the summer,” said Walker.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jessica Ng.