The Pacific Highway at Coffs Harbour has been voted the worst road in New South Wales for a fourth year running.

More than 12,000 motorists took part in the NRMA survey, rating the stretch of road on the state's mid-north coast the worst for overall driver frustration.

It was followed by Pennant Hills Road in Sydney's north, Parramatta Road at Concord in Sydney's inner-west and the Princes Highway at Albion Park, south of Sydney.

Nearly one in 10 Sydney road users said Pennant Hills Road was the city's worst to travel on.

For the first time, the NRMA also asked motorists to nominate suburbs with traffic problems.

Concord, Pennant Hills and Mosman were rated the three worst.

Coffs Harbour population growth demands urgent action

The NRMA blamed traffic congestion, poor road surfaces and too few lanes for the high level of frustration on the Pacific Highway at Coffs Harbour.

NRMA's 10 worst roads in NSW 1. Pacific Highway at Coffs Harbour 2. Pennant Hills Road at Pennant Hills 3. Parramatta Road at Concord 4. Princes Highway at Albion Park 5. Barton Highway at Murrumbateman 6. Kings Highway at Braidwood 7. Bucketts Way at Allworth 8. M5 Motorway at Revesby 9. Narellan Road at Campbelltown 10. M4 Western Motorway at Granville

NRMA president Kyle Loades said it was clear an initial target to complete a highway upgrade by 2016 would not be met, and governments must be held to account to meet the new deadline of 2020.

However, while full duplication of the road must remain a priority, population growth at Coffs Harbour meant other solutions were also needed, including a bypass, he said.

"Although there have been improvements in recent years, particularly at the southern end of the Pacific Highway, all it's actually done to date is push north the bottleneck which at the moment is ended right at Coffs Harbour," Mr Loades said.

"That's compounded by significant population growth in Coffs Harbour due to double over the next two decades."

Signs, smartphone apps could help in Sydney, NRMA says

Mr Loades said the poor result for Pennant Hills and Parramatta roads showed the urgent need for the completion of the NorthConnex tunnel, under Pennant Hills Road, and the WestConnex motorway, in Sydney's west and south.

NRMA's suburbs with the worst roads 1. Concord 2. Pennant Hills 3. Mosman 4. Albion Park 5. Beecroft 6. Murrumbateman 7. Wahroonga 8. Coffs Harbour 9. Granville 10. Thornleigh

But he said other solutions must be found in the meantime.

He called for new approaches to ease traffic congestion, such as signs to inform drivers of travel time estimates on Parramatta Road, improved efforts to reduce truck breakdowns and the removal of small pockets of street parking which create bottlenecks, such as at Five Dock in Sydney's inner-west.

"It's also time we started using technology to monitor and let drivers know about parking availability by using electronic messaging signs and smartphone apps," Mr Loades said.

"There's nothing worse than driving around endlessly looking for a car spot."

Much work also needed to be done outside Sydney, he said.

One emerging trouble spot was the Barton Highway from Canberra, which entered the list of the worst five roads in NSW and the ACT for the first time.

"A number of sections on the Princes, Barton and Kings highways are still death traps and it's clear from this year's results that New South Wales and ACT motorists want these black spots fixed," Mr Loades said.

He said driver attitudes were also key.

"We've got to have safer roads, safer cars, but we've also got to have better driver behaviour and the attitudes are part of that."