Crusader Highlights Potholes With Dirty Drawings; Gets Them Filled ASAP

Here's something interesting for your Thursday afternoon; a one-man (I assume) pothole activist armed with a can of spray paint is getting results. According to the Manchester Evening News, the mystery crusader is drawing attention to potholes by drawing male appendages around them. I try to include a photo with every blog post, but I'm not doing so this time, for good reason.

Not surprisingly, his unconventional approach is spurring street crews to repair the potholes as quick as possible, sometimes within 48 hours of being "decorated" with the drawings. Citizens seem to approve and someone has even started a Facebook fan page for the crusader. Local officials aren't so amused though, with one calling the drawings stupid, insulting to residents and offensive to families walking young children to school.

What Areas of Transportation Should Be Funded?

What is important to you when it comes to transportation? That the roads are better maintained or that there are more bike lanes and sidewalks? What about improvements that would make intersections safer or measures to reduce traffic jams and delays?

That's the problem- there are many ways to spend money on local transportation and not enough money. We come up against this issue all the time. So decide what areas are the most appropriate to fund, we're asking you.

Please take our web survey to let us know how transportation funding should be divvied up.

New federal and state regulations require SRTC to create and track performance measures and targets to ensure the transportation system is developing as planned. To do this, we must first identify what measures and targets to set.  

The web tool will help you understand how investments and outcomes are related and also allows you to identify priorities of the region that will help develop those targets. The tool allows users to choose an estimated level at which they would fund categories such as roadway preservation, congestion management, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, transit improvements and transportation safety.

As you allocate money to each category, graphics show just how far that amount would go. For roadway preservation, the amount of lane miles repaired changes as you change the funding for that category. For bicycle and pedestrian improvements, the percentage of people commuting by bike or walking increases or decreases as you add or subtract money.

The $50 million available for distribution on the web tool is based on the approximate amount of money projected to be invested in the local transportation system by SRTC over the next five years.  Once you have made your budgeting decisions, you can compare your results to others who have used the web tool and learn about the next steps in the performance measurements development process.

Indian Retiree Wages His Own War on Potholes

Katnam and one of his selfies

The number one transportation complaint I hear when out talking to members of the public? Potholes of course. We don't have to let them get us down though. Retired people unite to fight this scourge! Okay, that may be extreme but fighting potholes is how one man in India is spending his retirement years.

NPR says 67-year-old Gandgadhara Katnam has filled about 1,100 potholes on the streets of Hyderabad in the past five years. He carries bags of gravel, tar, a spade, brooms, wire brushes and a crowbar in the trunk of his Fiat in case he sees a pothole or is alerted to one via Facebook.

Once a pothole has been identified, Katnam clears it of debris and standing water, pours in the gravel and tar, levels it off and waits about 30 minutes for it to set. He puts cones around it to keep people from driving on it until it's solid, then he's back on his way again, usually in less than an hour. And each time he patches a pothole, Katnam takes a selfie with it.

Katnam's obsession with potholes is fairly new. Five years ago, while driving to work, he hit a massive pothole and splashed muddy rainwater onto a woman and a child. Their clothes were ruined and he felt ashamed. He apologized but didn't feel that was enough, so he took action.

He started with the potholes on a stretch of road just outside his house. At first he did it all himself, but has since started a group of laborers to help him. He won't, however, take cash donations to pay for supplies. Especially from those outside of India as he says the government should be responsible for patching the holes and they have the money to fix the roads.

And the government has apparently gotten the message. Or at least part of it. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporate now provides some of the raw materials for patching. Currently, the city has allocated about 30 trucks in the city to pothole repairs.

Spokane Valley Pothole Hotline Open

You may want to call 911 instead of the pothole
hotline if you see something like this.

The folks at the City of Spokane Valley want you to know that pothole repair crews are plugging away at patching potholes early this year. But they need your help identifying where there are holes that need to be fixed.

To report potholes, call 921-1000 or go online to www.spokanevalley.org/CARES and select the "Report a Pothole" link.  To file your concern, scroll to the "Create a new C.A.R.E.S Request" and select the "Report a Pothole" link from the Public Works options listed.  From here, you will be directed to the online form.
 
Be sure to provide the following information to help locate the pothole to be repaired:

• Location of the pothole: a street address closest to the pothole, or a description that includes the name of the street, nearest cross streets, side of the street (north, south, east, west) and the lane in which the pothole can be found (northbound, southbound, eastbound, westbound, curbside, turn lane, etc.).
• Pothole description: the size or severity of the pothole.
• Additional information: any supplementary details that may help us fix it.
• Contact information: if you wish to be contacted about your report, please provide your name and an email address or daytime telephone number where you can be reached.

Killer Pothole Claims Pothole Repair Truck

Thanks to my sister-in-law for forwarding this little gem on a killer pothole. An East Lansing, Michigan road crew showed up to patch a pothole earlier this week, only to have their truck fall through the pavement, creating a much bigger hole.

Ironic? Definitely.  Here's more if you're interested.

Study Says Area Bad Roads Are Hitting You Where It Hurts- In the Wallet

Not to sound like a broken record, but our local roads aren't in great shape. We told you that when developing our long term tranpsortation plan Horizon 2040, and now a new study by national transportation research group TRIP is telling you that.

TRIP says damaged roads costs the average Spokane driver $1,423 a year in increased maintenance, fuel, traffic accidents and time lost in traffic. But there's also costs incurred by collisions and the cost to the economy that bad roads take.

The Spokesman-Review looks at the numbers.

New Jersey Is Mapping Its Potholes

Both Spokane and Spokane County have "pothole hotlines" or web pages where you can report the location of a pothole in order to have it fixed. Many communities offer these options as a way for the public to help pinpoint the location of the craters. In New Jersey, they're taking the technology one step further and mapping the location of the holes reported, so people can check it out in advance to try to avoid potholes on their daily routes.

 

And the people reporting the potholes are adding comments too, to let people know how bad the holes are or one what side of the road.

 

If you'd like to check it out, the link is here. I wonder, if we did a map like this in our area, what it would look like?

Plug Spokane Valley Potholes

Legal Disclaimer: This pothole is merely a depiction of a
pothole, not necessarily a Spokane Valley pothole.
 

Spokane Valley is asking for your help to fill the potholes appearing as a result of the winter freeze/thaw cycle. The Public Works Department wants you report potholes in your area by calling 921-1000 or go online to www.spokanevalley.org/CARES and select the "Report a Pothole" link. Scroll to the "Create a new C.A.R.E.S Request" and select the "Report a Pothole" link from the Public Works options listed. You will be directed to the online form.

Be sure to provide the following information:

• Location of the pothole - a street address closest to the pothole, or a description that includes the name of the street, nearest cross streets, side of the street (north, south, east, west) and the lane in which the pothole can be found (northbound, southbound, eastbound, westbound, curbside, turn lane, etc.);
• The size or severity of the pothole;
• Any additional information that may help fix it.
• If you wish to be contacted about your report, please provide your name and an email address or daytime telephone number where you can be reached.

Help WSDOT Find & Patch Potholes On State Highways

The State is getting into the act of patching potholes as well and wants you to know you can report a pothole on state highways by emailing the Washington State Department of Transportationm (WSDOT).

With hundreds of miles of roadway to cover, it's difficult for DOT crews to catch every pothole, so they ask that if you see a pothole on a state highway, send them an e-mail at SpokaneWSDOTPothole@wsdot.wa.gov. Please be very specific about the location and send a photo if you like.

Our region handles all state highways in Spokane, Adams (east of US 395), Ferry, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Stevens, and Whitman Counties. In Spokane County, that includes north Division Street, west Francis, most of Pines Road in Spokane Valley, and east Trent.

Report Spokane City Potholes Online Now

Attaching a picture like this won't get your pothole
filled any sooner, by the way.

If you hadn't heard already, the City of Spokane launched a new online way to report potholes last week. 

Just go to http://myspokane.spokanecity.org/mobile/getchrome.html and enter information about the size and location of the pothole. You can also “pin” the location on a map and send along a photo. The reported information will go directly to the City’s Street Department to be scheduled for repair.

The service works on:

• iPhones and iPads with operating systems 5 or 6.
• Droid devices with “ice cream sandwich” or “jelly bean” using a Google Chrome browser.
• Computers with Internet Explorer or Google Chrome browsers.

A short tutorial video on how to use the website is available at http://youtu.be/fGKhjTZnTbI.

If you prefer though, you can continue to report potholes by calling the Street Department at 625-7733. Crews prioritize pothole repairs based on size and location, with the largest potholes on the busiest streets being repaired first.

Annual TV Station Pothole Campaign is Back

It was pointed out during yesterday's Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting that it's that time of year in Spokane when the roads can be really hard on our vehicles, and the annual 'Pothole Patrol' campaign and KREM 2 News is back up and running.

Each year the station asks viewers to report the biggest potholes they see and they will report them to the jurisdiction responsible, then follow up with those jurisdictions to see if they were repaired. How the program works is below, or you can go to the KREM Facebook page to report them.