RFEngineer

I have had decent success in complaining to my city/county about potholes in roads. I have found that governments take pride in responding quickly to these types of requests. Whether they actually fix anything is up for debate.

Obvious potholes are easy to request and get fixed. But I often find that roads need overall maintenance rather than specific potholes filled. For example, old patches are failing or were never completed to a high quality. Or frost heave cracks have formed. A road that is adequate for car travel is often inadequate for bike travel.

Do you bother requesting road maintenance? How do you go about it? Take pictures of specific problems? I am curious because I want to be more effective in directing my local government in road maintenance, specifically for bikes.
Alan

mr_bill

Yes. FWIW, some cities and towns are FINALLY responding to hazard to people on bikes reports.

The PITA is multiple jurisdictions, multiple apps. We have some crazy borders around here.

I’ve found high correlation to accurate description of the hazard and gps/address to getting something fixed.
Pics not so much.

-mr. bill

DrIsotope

The state is broke, the county is broke, and the town I live in doesn't give a crap. They wrangle the housing developers to paying for the fire stations and schools. Roads? Pffff. Welcome to the fringe zone where suburbia meets... nowhere.

jon c. 

I wouldn't have anything to complain about as roads around here are pretty good. When I travel elsewhere I realize we're pretty fortunate.

CliffordK

I usually ignore the little stuff. The City of Eugene is supposed to have a bike app that I tried to use once, but it crashed every time I tried to post something. Springfield hasn't joined it.

I've reported a few things, but perhaps not getting to the right people, and it generally is ignored.

If there is an extreme hazard, I have reported it. I reported an Osprey nest on a power line, and the utility company removed it the next day.

Just yesterday I encountered this in one of the sidewalks, and they were quick to respond.

StormDrainCover.jpg

The cover was about 4'x4'. While it did seem to support my weight, the whole thing wobbled when I stepped on it.

I'm not quite sure what it was... perhaps the entrance to Hades.

Oh, and I found a broken half missing manhole cover that I reported a few years ago... also fixed quickly.

Joe Bikerider

I’ve reported a growing pot hole on my street with success. It was at the right edge of a curvy narrow section of road. As mr_bill mentioned the key was accurate location. In this case I gave the street and house number. I wasn’t expecting much but it was patched up and made level inside of a week. The city has an app for this but I just sent an email.

Gresp15C

I've reported issues, and they get fixed.

Bizman

I report potholes if there is so many I can't dodge them anymore or I hit one and get a flat. I call the twp and tell them where it is and they have always fixed them quickly! I tell them I ride a bike and fixing flats in the cold and at night is not fun. After they fix them I call and thank them for the quickness of the repair and how much I appreciate it.

Rollfast

I suppose that if I have a cool few million they'll be happy to do whatever I request

B. Carfree

I sure wish my state was broke like California.
CA government to run budget surplus in 2018 | The Sacramento Bee

B. Carfree

I was at last week's Active Transportation Committee meeting in Eugene. The city traffic planner who sits in, Reed Dunbar, said that the ibikeeugene app improved version is still in development because people in the ad hoc group that is in charge of it keep changing the deliverables. Like just about everything else traffic planning/engineering wise in this city, it's just a mess of incompetence. No wonder Eugene has lost 43% of its cyclists since 2009.

On a related note, I was on a neighborhood walkabout with Reed's boss three years ago. He was trialing an app for reporting sidewalk defects. It's still not available. But hey, his department puts on parties several times each year.

ExPatTyke

I've reported a couple of potholes using www.fillthathole.org.uk.

It seems to work - the ones I've reported have been patched within a week or so, and it cuts out the hassle of dealing with a local council. I'd really like to report all the local potholes, but that would be a full time job.

As a contrast I take my bike on our Summer trips to France and love riding there. Mile after mile of near perfect tarmac, not a pothole in sight - if the French authorities can get it right why can't those in the UK?

Chris0516

Yes, By describing myself in another manner.

Several years ago, I came across a crack in the road. That went all the way from one side, to the other. I also mentioned that while it would be easier for me to stop. A motor vehicle going 30mph, definitely do some damage to their vehicle. I also mentioned the speed limit on the road in question, and how it gets busy during rush hour. The County DOT fixed it, by the end of the week.

DrIsotope

You have any idea what $7.5B surplus means in the scope of California’s annual spending? They just started the widening project on the 405 freeway- adding some lanes to a 16 mile stretch is going to cost $1.9B.

And I don’t know how anyone could ever say “surplus” in regard to this state— Sacramento has borrowed billions from the public employees pension fund, and they have no way to pay it back. Say surplus to the guy who paid into his CalPERS for 40 years and now his retirement money is gone.

It’s a surplus when everything works and everybody can get paid.

genec

I've repoted stuff... it gets fixed.

I've reported things from bad holes in bike lanes to non functioning stoplights (from cyclist perspective), most have been repaired to my satisfaction.

AlmostTrick

There are not enough pot holes around here for me to bother worrying about, so Yay!


Now the traffic lights that I've asked to be recalibrated to detect bikes many times now, that's another story.

Rollfast

I don't use either.

wingless

Same for southern Florida. There were issues after Irma, but the crews attacked those problems w/ a vengeance and all is good again.

ItsJustMe

This time of year in southeast Michigan? "I'd like to report that every single road in the area is a mass of potholes." "Yeah we know. We have six bucks in the budget this year."

khyricat

Sadly true about MI, but when I did report the car eating hole on my dirt road (almost width of the road and deep enough you hit the bumper going through, they were out 2 days later with a grader and some dirt and filled it and graded the road... next storm brought potholes back but not as bad... I am ordering my trike tomorrow to pick up next weekend or early the following week, planning to walk to the corner and paved roads for now.... though I may try riding it on my little road on the way home from the LBS and get a pleasant surprise! I am hoping things are a bit better once I am ready to trike to work in a month or so...