Nelson Bay Road has been rated one of the worst in the Newcastle and Hunter area.
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The crash-prone road, one of the Port's main traffic thoroughfares, was rated by road users to be the second worst in the area behind the New England Highway in the NRMA's Rate Your Road survey due to congestion.
The Pacific Highway at Hexham came in third.
"These survey results are telling," NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury said. "Across the region, motorists have called out congestion as their number one concern.
The Rate Your Road survey was launched by the NRMA in January to give voters a voice leading up to the March 23 state election.
The comprehensive survey saw almost 10,000 roads receive votes from 23,400 people across the state.
Roads in the Newcastle and Hunter regions received 2191 votes. The greatest amount of votes were cast in Lake Macquarie (493) followed by Newcastle (408), Port Stephens (386), Cessnock (301) and Maitland (194).
Participants were asked to rate their road on a scale of very poor to excellent out of 100 based on congestion, condition and safety. Voters also rated local public transport services.
The top five roads across the region to receive the most votes were the New England Highway (209 votes), Nelson Bay Road (131), The Pacific Highway at Hexham (46), Newcastle Road (35) and Dowling Street at Dungog (31).
Nelson Bay Road drew a rating of 48 out of 100 while the Pacific Highway at Hexham was rated 33 out of 100.
Voters' primary concern for the top four roads was congestion while Dowling Street made the list for its condition.
The Labor and Liberal parties, in the lead up to the state election, have made major funding commitments to improve Nelson Bay Road.
In January, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the Liberal Party would spend $205 million on top of the $70m it already had budgeted to upgrade 18km of Nelson Bay Road between Newcastle Airport at Williamtown to Bobs Farm.
Labor announced on March 13 that if elected to government, it would spend $600 million over two terms to carry out a complete duplication of Nelson Bay Road.
"Where money is spent we see improvements, so I'm pleased to see both sides of politics pledging billions of dollars to our roads in the lead up to the election," Mr Khoury said.
He thanked the Newcastle and Hunter communities for their overwhelming response to the NRMA's Rate Your Road campaign, and said the data would be critical as the NRMA worked to improve the region's transport network.
"To have mobilised more than 2000 people from around the Newcastle and Hunter regions for the NRMA's state election campaign is very humbling, and our commitment to the community is that their participation will not go to waste," he said.