When it comes to Edmonton's road infrastructure, candidates for council and mayor overwhelmingly said that Expansion is important to reduce traffic congestion and accommodate growth when answering Taproot's candidate survey.
Forty-four candidates chose this option. Among candidates for mayor, Paul Bakhmut, Ronald Stewart Billingsley, Jr, Tony Caterina, Abdul Malik Chukwudi, Rahim Jaffer, Andrew Knack, Utha Nadauk, and Olney Tugwell chose this response. Among candidates for council, incumbent candidates Aaron Paquette, Keren Tang, and Jo-Anne Wright said the same.
Eight candidates answered that Maintaining existing roads would be a better use of funds than expansion. Mayoral candidates Tim Cartmell, Omar Mohammad, and Michael Walters chose this option Erin Rutherford was the lone incumbent council candidate to pick it.
Andy Andrzej Gudanowski was the only mayoral candidate to answer that Investing in transit would be a better use of funds than expansion. Three incumbent councillors — Michael Janz, Anne Stevenson, and Ashley Salvador — chose this response. Anand Pye, who is running against Stevenson in Ward O-day'min, also did.
As of this writing, 22 candidates for council and mayor have not yet completed the survey.
Enacting decisions made by previous councils, Edmonton is building the Terwillegar Drive Expansion, which will see extra lanes for drivers and dedicated lanes for buses. The total cost, split between the city and province, is more than $200 million. Edmonton is also building the Yellowhead Trail Freeway Conversion. The provincial and federal governments are contributing up to $241.6 million each; Edmonton is responsible for the rest (and costs have escalated beyond $1 billion). During this council, Edmonton created a plan for housing developers to foot the bill to add lanes on Winterburn Road.