Why aren’t there any driveways in pictures of middle class homes from the 1890s? Because they didn’t have cars! The rest is history.
Before anyone considers their next blacktop driveway repair project, it might help to consider the history of driveways themselves. As well as the old jokey question, “Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways?”
The answer to that question is simple: language evolves. The invention of “parkways” was to distinguish scenic driving, often through parks, from the uglier views of Interstates. But the fact we park on driveways is a little more complicated – and related to the history of driveways.
In the 1840s, during the brief but influential career of landscape and building architect Andrew Jackson Downing, the areas of worn dirt from street to homes (nice, upper class homes) were described as “picturesque, private paths.” He was the first to acknowledge that place even existed. It wasn’t until 1871 when the word “driveway” appeared – incidentally but unrelatedly the year of the Great Chicago Fire, which ultimately led to the city rebuilding with the modern urban amenity known as alleys, which are the driveways to the back of city homes that sit cheek-by-jowl with no room for cars to pass in between.
That early version of a driveway might still have been a dirt path for horses and carriages in the 1840s, as the horseless version of a carriage did not appear until a few decades later. But not much later. The first asphalt road in the US was laid in 1870 by Belgian chemist Edmund J. DeSmedt (it was in Newark, New Jersey). The few paved residential driveways in existence at the time were laid with either gravel, cobblestones, or pavers.
There are no written records of just when a paved blacktop driveway led from a street, past the house to a carriage house (garage) in the back. Nor is there documentation of when the first potholes in an asphalt driveway appeared. But suffice it to say that would have been within about 20 years after the first blacktop driveway was laid in. Which suggests, by conjecture, that the first <a href="https://www.ezstreetasphalt.com/blog/where-potholes-come-from/">blacktop driveway repair</a> was made sometime around 1900.
In the book, “Research Notes: Toward a History of the Suburban Driveway,” writer David Solomon talks about how driveways evolved by the middle of the 20th century into “a space that allows for vehicular access between a public road and a piece of private property.” Solomon describes how this ended up with driveways in two zones: the place where the driveway meets the street and, often, crosses a sidewalk (giving us the term, “curb cut”); and the “roadway and/or parking area on the individual lot. The first of these is subject to regulation. That’s where it can be placed relative to the nearest intersections, how it drains into a stormwater system, and who maintains it. The rest of the driveway is wholly to the discretion of the homeowner.
Blacktop repair might seem like an expense that our great, great grandfathers didn’t have to bother with. But if they could see the cars of today in our driveways, they’d probably be happy to do some seasonal seal coating and pothole repair (and be relieved of the horse manure problems).
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

American Residential History: How Worn Paths Became Blacktop Driveways

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1992" src="/uploads/download-1-c1fe3eab.jpg" alt="" width="276" height="183" />
With the onset of warmer weather in North America, it's time to think about mosquitoes. In particular, mosquitoes that breed in potholes and carry deadly diseases.
Potholes hold water – by definition, standing water – that offers the world's peskiest insect a place to breed. Homeowners are urged to rid their property of water that collects in puddles and low spots, in rain barrels, in birdbaths, and just about any container that collects rainwater. But potholes in publicly-managed streets are largely out of their purview.
It's been happening probably as long as there have been roads. The matter of mosquitoes in potholes has played out in tropical regions around the world, particularly in India, African countries, and Brazil. But in New Orleans, it became a bigger issue in 2016 when the Zika virus, which is transmitted by the Aedes mosquito, migrated north to infect 5,168 people in the US (source: the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
Fox 8 News (WVUE-TV) in the Crescent City reported on August 6, 2016 that, "the city's water leaks and potholes may be one of the biggest culprits for breeding mosquitoes," it said.
A New Orleans infrastructure activist, Jeff Janusek of Fix My Streets, told the television news station, "There are definitely potholes where there is water that has been sitting there for over a week…we're here to say let's get these streets fixed properly, and let's get rid of the notion that there may be standing water in a pothole for a week."
Places that experience monsoon seasons, such as India, see this problem in a more pronounced way. DNA India, a news website on the Subcontinent, reported in a 2017 a story titled "Deadly potholes are turning into breeding spots for mosquitoes." The writer blames neglect of potholed streets for being responsible for a rise in mosquito-borne diseases, quoting one citizen as saying, "The civic body has one more reason to improve the condition of the roads. Apart from it leading to accidents and deaths, now we hear from health experts that it is leading to dengue and malaria."
The CDC lists the following mosquito-borne diseases currently found in the United States: Chikungunya virus, Dengue, Eastern Equine Encephalitis, Japanese Encephalitis, La Crosse Encephalitis, Malaria, St. Louis Encephalitis, West Nile, Yellow Fever, and Zika. Mosquitoes also carry dog heartworm, which also infects cats, foxes, and raccoons.
When water is in a pothole, it's also problematic for permanent repair because standard hot mix asphalt needs dry surrounding surfaces to tack properly. But EZ Street Premium Cold Asphalt, made with modified polymers, can create <a href="https://www.ezstreetasphalt.com/products/works-in-water/">a permanent repair, even in cold and wet conditions</a>.
Fortunately, the presence of the Zika virus has waned in the years since 2016 – to 452 infected individuals in 2017, and by 2020, a year when public attention was on a different virus, it fortunately dropped to four cases.
Infectious diseases can be effectively managed, as can rough pavement. It appears that filling those potholes handily addresses two problems with a single solution.

Street Potholes Breed Mosquitoes

Where water flows to is where pavement is most likely to fail. So in areas where water stands still there may well be potholes lurking under the puddles.
In the balance of life, there are bridges and there are underpasses. On the former a car will go up and over and the latter it’s down and through.
Simple stuff, right? It also explains why, simply, there tend to be potholes under bridges but not on top of them. This is because where water accumulates, so too do asphalt problems – because water is the enemy of intact pavement.
Most but not all bridges are paved with concrete instead of asphalt. The reason has to do with the relative strength of concrete when used in conjunction with the steel structure of a bridge. Asphalt is the preferred and economical material used over land (i.e., 99.9% of the roads traveled), where there is an underlayment bed of gravel, sand, and earth.
An important difference between bridges and underpasses is that water pretty much rolls off the bridge pavement. And where does it go? To the lowest spot it can drain to, of course. Which in the case of a bridge passing over a crossroads means the water drains to the bottommost point under the viaduct. That spells trouble if that underpass has inadequate drainage.
When water accumulates on top of pavement, in all likelihood it is also saturating the sub-layers of the road. Over time, one of two things can and very often does happen: the underlayment will wash out, leading to pothole formation; and in freeze-thaw conditions, the water will expand when frozen, creating larger cavities below the surface. In both cases, potholes and other pavement deterioration occurs.
What’s particularly insidious about viaduct potholes is when they are filled with water – which is often, even days after a rain – the water hides the crevasse. A motorist passing through won’t realize there is a pothole there until the spinning tire abruptly falls into it. The whump! and bump! is usually the driver’s first clue as to what was there.
Potholes are responsible for expenses and injuries. Data collected by the AAA (American Automobile Association) reveal that motorists spend about $3 billion per year to repair their vehicles from pothole incidents. For individual motorists, that averages out to $300 per pothole incident for blown tires, bent wheel rims, and impaired suspension systems.
The solutions are to drive more slowly when passing through accumulated water, or to drive around the water if possible. If the route is a regular part of your commute, pay attention to the quality of the pavement in dry times – and remember the pothole is still there, hiding under the water.
In most municipalities, reporting the pothole through any means provided is more likely to get those road hazards fixed.

Beware the Dips: Why Potholes Form Under Viaducts

Since the early 20th century, markings and reflectors have helped guide our way and keep us safe while driving. Too bad potholes don’t come with such warnings.
While it’s commonplace today to see yellow and white lines, and different colored reflectors, embedded in our streets and highways, that hasn’t always been the case. The first painted lines down the middle of roads – in Wayne County, Michigan in 1911 – came a full 25 years after the first car was patented (the Benz Patent-Motorwagen), and three years after the first mass-assembly 1908 Model T from Ford Motor Company.
In the intervening years the means by which drivers are directed away from hazards have become increasingly sophisticated and, conventional wisdom would have it, effective at reducing accidents.
Pavement markings have gotten better
A recently published meta-analysis – a comprehensive overview of 71 different studies – looks at the impact of pavement markings (“Road Markings and Their Impact on Driver Behavior and Road Safety: A Systematic Review of Current Findings,” Babic, Fiolic, et al., Michigan State University and University of Zagreb, Journal of Advanced Transportation, 2020). It identifies the effectiveness of road markings on driver safety; overall, the beneficial safety effects are largely good. One 1981 study cited within the paper says that accidents involving injuries and deaths decreased between 3% and 16% from various types of road marking enhancements. Another study conducted in Texas in 2006 found that roads without edge lines have an 11% higher risk of road accidents than comparable roads with edge lines.
Some additional conclusions of the study:
<ul>
<li>Road markings with higher retroreflectivity (i.e., your headlight beams reflect back) are associated with a lower number of road accidents.</li>
<li>Wider markings (especially edge lines) reduce vehicle crashes.</li>
<li>“Different” road markings – transverse lines, herringbone and dragon teeth patterns, etc. – proved to be a positive speed reduction and compliance measure.</li>
<li>Flat and “rumble” (textured, noise-producing) transverse lines are most effective in reducing the speed prior to curves, intersections, and rural-urban connectors and transitions.</li>
<li>Maintaining road markings (i.e., refreshing the paint) has positive effects on road safety.</li>
<li>Wet conditions adversely impact the effects of retroreflection markings.</li>
</ul>
Road markings also have implications for the future where robots will be doing the driving. The president of BMW testified before the US Congress that clear lane markings are, “a critical component to a transportation network that is ready to deploy connected and automated vehicles [autonomous vehicles].” The testimony was in a hearing before the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit/Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure in the US House of Representatives (April 9, 2019).
Pavement potholes still are dangerous
But even with great markings and, eventually, safety-programmed autonomous vehicles, it’s difficult to see how either overcome the hazards of poor pavement quality. Potholes and other asphalt failures (loose gravel, oily surfaces, debris, etc.) are the cause of 22,000 traffic fatalities per year, according to research by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE). The research organization – which counts among its clients the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Safety Council, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving – says deficient road conditions are “substantially more lethal than drunk driving, speeding, or non-use of safety belts.”
In addition to fatalities, PIRE says that costs associated with bad road conditions are $200 billion annually.

Reading the Road

We are conducting a national survey to identify people&#8217;s thoughts and experiences with potholes. Your opinion matters so we invite you to participate.
Go to this link – <a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HTVJ2ML">https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HTVJ2ML</a>– or use the handy QR code below (just aim your smartphone camera at it) to go to the SurveyMonkey site-based survey.
It’s just a few questions and it should take about one minute to complete.
– Thank you from Pothole.info
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1923" src="/uploads/qr-code-htvj2ml-29d8fc88.png" alt="" width="256" height="256" />

Seeking your pothole opinions!

British motorists seem to honor, dubiously, potholes more than we do in America. It’s not like US motorists suffer car damages any less from bad pavement.
Dead men may tell no tales. But on National Pothole Day 2020 – an event every year in the UK on January 15 – some dead hubcaps are talking.
So it seems, anyway, from a press kit received at Pothole.info from our colleagues across the pond at <a href="https://www.potholeboss.com/">Potholeboss.com</a>. As it happens, those hubcaps know what hit them: by their descriptions it seems to be a universal experience for motorists everywhere. When a car hits a pothole, all kinds of damages occur. Some of those damages can be pretty pricy, such as $1200 to replace a cracked catalytic converter.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1862" src="/uploads/uk-pothole-day-press-kit-5e809ff2.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1200" />
"Dead" hubcaps being sent to UK media to illustrate how bumps in the road can and do damage cars (and trucks/lorries) on the road.
&nbsp;
As it so often happens, hubcaps are easily jarred from their mounts and roll to the side of the road – lonely, forgotten and sad.
Potholeboss.com shares their stories, written in the first person ("first hubcap?"):
“I was thrown off the vehicle after hitting a pothole in a new town named for a famous roadway engineer (Shropshire)”
“Parts of that A Road are diabolical … crashing into that pothole was jarring…’
“…he drove into a pothole the size of a bathtub. It’s understandable how I was left for dead. The damage was major.”
“Ka-blam! She hit the hole. The tyre went flat. I popped off, rolled along the macadam, hopped the kerb, and came to a stop.”
The wet weather in the UK that provides them with lovely, green and rolling hills is also why the country has problems with its pavement. Moisture, both frozen and not, is a primary culprit in causing potholes. So too is heavy vehicle traffic, summer heat, and neglect of small cracks before they grow into something much worse and more expensive.
Winter repairs come with challenges. So called “throw-and-go” cold asphalt products are commonly used for temporary pothole repairs in countries around the globe. Frustratingly, these repairs prove ineffective within days or weeks. This method also requires road crews to return in warmer, drier weather to fill the hole with a more resilient patch. But more sophisticated and permanent cold-asphalt treatments, such as <a href="http://www.ezstreetasphalt.co.uk/">EZ Street</a> from Red Stag in the UK, cut that to a single repair, even in cold and wet conditions.
&nbsp;
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1854" src="/uploads/jan-15-uk-pothole-day-2e1ed804.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="768" />
EZ Street cold asphalt is unusual in that it creates a permanent fix from a single application, even in winter and wet conditions.
&nbsp;
The Telegraph, a London-based daily newspaper, reported last August that if all the potholes in England were combined they would drop 15 times deeper than the lowest point in the American Grand Canyon. The country’s definition of a pothole is any dip in the road surface of 40mm or greater. It’s more than costly to repair and rebuild the roads – damage to vehicles is expensive as well. More than £1.9 million was paid out in compensation to motorists who suffered vehicle damage due to those dips in 2018.
Stateside, we think of our pothole problems as a function of climate, but that is misleading. New York, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland and Minneapolis all have pothole repairs to make on a continual basis, particularly in winter and spring months. But Los Angeles, Houston and Honolulu have lots of pothole problems too.
Attention to road maintenance can make the difference between good and bad asphalt. Places like Michigan and Pennsylvania, in similar climate zones, reportedly have different degrees of bad pavement despite their similarities in weather and traffic.
How can that be? According to Crain’s Detroit Business, a weekly newspaper and news website, the Motor City’s state spends $154 annually per capita on roads while in states such as Pennsylvania that number is $530 per person. Drivers in Detroit shell out $865 per motorist per year for car repairs related to poor road conditions, versus a national average of $377. There are clear correlations between good roads and lower costs to drivers in repairs.
The American Auto Association (AAA) reports that vehicle repair bills related to pothole damage have cost US drivers $15 billion over the past five years. Flat tires, bent wheels and suspension system components were the most common damages.
America officially observes National Pothole Day on January 15 as well. But it seems we don’t give it the royal treatment the way the Brits do. Perhaps now that Harry and Meaghan are relocating to North America maybe this tradition can come over to the colonies – because America’s accumulation of potholes could probably go deeper than 15 Grand Canyons.

1/15 is UK's National Pothole Day – and the US too

How does the quality of infrastructure affect a state economy? How might the condition of roads, bridges, airports, ports, railways, and utilities affect quality of life? Do potholes on our daily commute affect us in other ways?<\/strong><\/p>
The <a href="http:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2016\/07\/12\/crumbling-america-10-states-with-the-worst-infrastructure.html">CNBC cable news<\/a> channel went about considering these and other factors in 2016, breaking down each condition by state. They considered such things as the percent of deficient bridges, the average commuting time to work, and what maintenance of water systems in each state would cost over the next 20 years. By their methodology, the following rankings resulted:<\/p>
Worst infrastructure ratings<\/strong><\/p>
<ol>
<li>Vermont (50th<\/sup> out of 50)<\/li>
<li>Massachusetts<\/li>
<li>New York<\/li>
<li>Hawaii<\/li>
<li>New Jersey tied with Maryland<\/li>
<li>Connecticut<\/li>
<li>Maine<\/li>
<li>New Hampshire<\/li>
<li>Rhode Island<\/li>
<\/ol>
Best infrastructure ratings<\/strong><\/p>
<ol>
<li>Indiana (1st<\/sup> out of 50)<\/li>
<li>Tennessee<\/li>
<li>Texas<\/li>
<li>Georgia<\/li>
<li>Minnesota<\/li>
<li>North Dakota<\/li>
<li>Ohio<\/li>
<li>Kansas<\/li>
<li>Missouri<\/li>
<li>Florida<\/li>
<\/ol>
By separate criteria, all states were then ranked on a number of other factors, including data sets to define “cost of doing business,” “economy,” “business friendliness,” and “quality of life.” What is notable within these assessments is that a poor infrastructure often (but not always) correlates with other negative factors as well. We share those correlations here:<\/p>
Cost of living<\/strong><\/p>
This factors for housing, food, and energy relative to wages. By these sets of data, poor infrastructure also correlates with an unfavorable cost of living in seven states: Hawaii, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Vermont. None of the states that rank in the top ten for quality infrastructure fell into the bottom cost-of-living list.<\/p>
The correlation raises a few chicken-or-egg questions: does poor infrastructure result from overall tight budgets, personal and public, because they cannot afford to pay for maintenance? Or do the costs of maintaining crumbling roads and bridges add to the tax burden as well as costs of transportation (vehicle repairs, longer trips, etc.). The relationship may not be quite so direct, but with such a strong overlap it suggests further investigation be made.<\/p>
Cost of doing business<\/strong><\/p>
This assessment encompasses the relative competitiveness of each state’s tax climate, state-sponsored incentives other than taxation that are intended to lower business costs, utility costs (which often vary by state because utilities are state-regulated), average state wage costs, and rental rates for office and industrial space.<\/p>
The correlation between high business costs and poor infrastructure was very strong; eight states with poorest infrastructure almost entirely also have the highest costs of doing business. Only New Hampshire and Maine didn’t make the bottom ten (California and Alaska did). If a state has roads pitted with potholes, bridges that have been neglected along with water, sewage, and other utility system maintenance, the burden on the public for those repairs likely translates into higher tax rates.<\/p>
Note: Failure to fix smaller potholes today will result in much larger road repair and replacement costs just a few years from now. State, county, and city leaders often cut maintenance budgets in a misguided attempt to save money. The cost of deferred pavement repairs, for example, can increase by a factor of seven over just five years.<\/p>
At the other end of the spectrum, Indiana (#1 in infrastructure) and Tennessee (#10) ranked among the best states for low costs of doing business.<\/p>
Quality of life<\/strong><\/p>
It stands to reason that the quality – or lack thereof – of transport and utilities would also have an effect on quality of life. If your ride to work involves a pothole battlefield the daily imposition of such tensions wouldn’t be very pleasant.<\/p>
But there is a mixed story here: Four “worst infrastructure” states (Vermont, New Hampshire, Hawaii, and Maine) rank high in quality of life, as do two “best infrastructure” states (Minnesota and North Dakota). The CNBC research based this on crime rates, anti-discrimination protections, quality of health care, level of health insurance coverage, overall population health statistics, local attractions, parks and recreation, and environmental quality.<\/p>
Perhaps good health care to address headaches and the occasional chipped tooth would mitigate the jarring effects of bad pavement. But some of the aforementioned quality of life factors exist outside the sphere of road quality. People who work on the road for a living, however – truck drivers, taxi drivers, other delivery drivers, bus drivers, outside sales personnel, plus “soccer moms,” for example – arguably experience road quality to a much greater extent than do others.<\/p>
So while correlation does not equal causation, the overlap of potholed roads and unfavorable costs to consumers and businesses bears notice. Two other factors that might be just as important, not included in this assessment, are simply the weather and time (i.e., the age of cities). The states with the worst infrastructure are largely clustered in the Northeast, the oldest states in the union where urban populations have existed for a few hundred years and where the worst of winter weather – snow, freezing rain, and frequent freeze-thaw cycles – lead to deteriorated pavement, stressed bridge trusses, and the like. But Hawaii’s inclusion in the list suggests something else. The CNBC report says deficient bridges and long commute times on narrow roads, as well as a stressed water system, make the Aloha State a bit less welcoming.<\/p>
&nbsp;<\/p>

Poor Infrastructure States Have Other Problems, Too

Most drivers avoid potholes wherever and however much possible. But others face the problem head-on. For a living. And for laughs.
In April – a prime time for potholes in the wake of late winter/early spring freeze-thaw cycles – a character known as the Pothole Dummy plied the streets of Chicago to see how many potholes he could run over in a five-day stretch. He was successful: 1,110 hits were made over 255 miles, which works out to 4.35 potholes per mile.
Why do such a thing? It was a publicity stunt by Advance Auto Parts, the national retailer serving the aftermarket car-repair industry. Together with parts manufacturers Moog (steering and suspension) and Monroe (shocks and struts), the Dummy sponsors outfitted a 2009 Dodge Charger that already had 100,000 miles under its chassis. New struts and shocks were put on the undercarriage as a way to test their resilience to the abuse.
And boy did they have fun. Take a look at the <a href="https://potholedummy.com/">highlights videos</a> on the Pothole Dummy webpage.
We count the program a success on several points:
Humor – The campaign has multiple videos of the Pothole Dummy himself, comedian Daniel Strauss, who seems to relish the bounces as he hits the deepest potholes he can find. He has guest passengers that include Chicago Bears football players. Potholes in the hypothetical, happening to someone else, are funny (but less so in reality).
Effective PR – The Chicago Tribune, the Minneapolis Egotist, and other news outlets covered the story. Additionally, Strauss had media personalities ride along with him to enjoy (?) the bumpy ride and to stream or live tweet their adventures.
Public service/education – The message throughout is about the cumulative cost of potholes to American motorists, which is $3 billion per year. The program also provides advice on how to do a diagnostic test by feeling how the steering wheel responds after a few hard pothole hits, or do a bounce test, pushing the car down on its corners to see if it springs back in one or two bounces, how to do a "drive park" test to check for buckling in the suspension system, and with the car jacked off the ground how to feel for looseness in a wheel that can indicate bearing problems.
Surprisingly, the car sensor-scoreboard reflected that over five days the "average pothole severity" scored about a 2.2 out of 5. This may be due to the relatively mild winter in the upper Midwest, courtesy of El Niño weather conditions in 2015-2016.
Chicago drivers may beg to differ. Because the only pothole that matters is the one that blew your tire out on your way to work this morning.

Pothole Dummy Laughs Off 1,100 Hard Hits in Chicago

Is it possible? Might data science and data analytics help improve our potholed roads?
Applied data science is all around us. It's how Google Maps can recommend routes to take with some ability to predict traffic (because other Google Maps users have tested those routes before you, and GPS tracking records and analyzes the speed of those previous drivers at different times of day and in various road conditions). It's also how spellcheck fixes our words when we mistype or misspell; it's how political campaigns apply their resources in the most effective ways; it's how sports betting works; it's how petroleum reserves and oil pricing is determined; and it's increasingly a part of predicting tomorrow's weather and broader climatic changes over the next 50 years.
Data science can be applied to municipal challenges that include potholes. Pothole.info was contacted by Kyle Polich, co-host of DataSkeptic, to participate in a <a style="color: #3366ff;" href="http://dataskeptic.com/epnotes/potholes.php">podcast</a> that explores where data can tell us about how things work, and, in some cases, how things can work better. Because information is power, right?
We touched on this in the past on Pothole.info. We've included stories about smartphone apps such as <a href=" http://www.pothole.info/2011/03/seeclickfix-more-potholes-fixed-money-saved/">SeeClickFix</a> and <a style="color: #3366ff;" href="http://www.pothole.info/2010/12/citizen-pothole-reporting-via-phone-apps-take-off-but-can-street-maintenance-departments-keep-up/">proprietary reporting systems</a> out of Portland, Oregon, Boston, Massachusetts and elsewhere that help departments of transportation identify where the most critical pavement problems are. Under the right setup, public administrators can look at response times to pothole complaints, and perhaps correlate that with reduced accidents or fewer claims against a city or county for damages to vehicles. If data science can result in smarter, faster repairs at locations that affect the largest numbers of drivers, we count that as a giant leap forward.
Pothole.info editor Russ Klettke participated in the DataSkeptic podcast, along with Ben Berkowitz of SeeClickFix and Chelsea Ursaner of the Los Angeles Open Data Team. It's a thoughtful look at the potential future of potholes and pothole fixes. We're not there yet, but with billions of dollars of road repairs waiting to happen – and lots of accidents (i.e., injuries and deaths, plus expensive repairs) attributed to potholes – there certainly is an economic imperative to push these future concepts along.
&nbsp;

Can Data Science Fix Potholes?

Some people get angry and bitter over the damage that poor pavement causes. But to protect from vehicular damage and accidents, some people take action.<\/strong><\/p>\nThe experience of driving in modern life is very different from the advertising of the 1950s, when singer Dinah Shore sang, "See the USA in your Chevrolet." The camera showed us <a href="https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=boertpylK0M" target="_blank">an open, smooth highway<\/a>, where nary a care should cross the minds of drivers and passengers.<\/p>\nInstead, we today have traffic and potholes and detours. And in place of a perky song there are moments of discontent, frustration and, as is often reported in the news, road rage. One particularly disgruntled driver recorded his epic expletive-undeleted rant on the Internet about a pothole-pocked road in rural Ohio. From an armchair psychologist's perspective, he appears to have <a href="http:\/\/digg.com\/video\/no-one-has-ever-been-as-mad-about-anything-as-this-guy-is-about-potholes" target="_blank">lost his mind<\/a> over bad pavement. (Note, the audio of the video is not for family or workplace settings.)<\/p>\nA University of Maryland sociologist, Philip N. Cohen, wrote about the emotions of the American driving experience some years ago for The Huffington Post. Cohen says that anger, bitterness and fear pervade the driving experience. For example, we might get angry when we switch lanes in slow moving traffic and then our new lane seems even slower. Did we make a bad decision to switch lanes? Or is someone ahead in our lane holding us back?<\/p>\nBitterness comes from such things as when someone cuts us off, taking up 15 feet of road space that we think we are due. Never mind how that small slight has almost no effect on how much time it takes to reach your destination; they took something that was rightfully yours.<\/p>\nFear in traffic is another emotion entirely. It comes from what Cohen says is "the constant danger of accidents [which] heightens our emotional responses to other drivers." We might add how potholes heighten those fears, as rough pavement causes drivers to swerve or else they incur a very expensive car repair from hitting a deep pothole. Cohen adds that this fear of accidents "heightens our emotional responses to other drivers and…directs our anger and bitterness toward the individuals around us."<\/p>\nAdd this emotion: Bureaucratic frustration. This comes in the aftermath of driving incidents when no one is accepting blame or the financial burden.<\/p>\nIn the Buffalo, New York suburb of Tonawanda, one would expect they have the whole pothole-problem scenario all worked out. With huge snowstorms and the freeze-thaw oscillations known to create potholes, drivers there should be skilled at both avoiding potholes and knowing how to get the damage paid for. But in January 2015, no fewer than 15 drivers all managed to hit a bridge joint that popped up on an overpass. Not technically a pothole, the chunk of concrete nonetheless caused thousands of dollars of damage to several of the cars.<\/p>\nThe Buffalo CBS affiliate, WIVB-TV News 4, <a href="http:\/\/wivb.com\/2015\/11\/05\/news-4-investigates-pothole-payouts-rarely-happen\/" target="_blank">investigated claims<\/a> in this and 128 other cases in eight Western New York counties, finding that only 13 had their damages paid for by the state. That means that 116 drivers with significant car damage from poor road conditions were likely left feeling bitter and angry, to say the least.<\/p>\nSome people put their emotions to good use, however. Consider how a group of bar patrons in Hamtramck, Michigan, a Detroit suburb, took matters into their own hands. After a session of complaining about potholes, they pooled resources to buy $120 worth of cold patch asphalt – 17 heavy bags weighing about 900 pounds – which covered the better part of one block's road crevices. The group started a <a href="https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/8r4m7ukx4m" target="_blank">GoFundMe<\/a> page that has since raised $4,475 to continue the effort.<\/p>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n&nbsp;<\/p>

How Humans Respond Emotionally to Potholes

Ford intentionally built a very nasty stretch of pavement to test vehicles under pothole conditions. It&rsquo;s a success &ndash; but is that a good thing?<\/strong><\/p>\nThis just in from the Department of Irony: Ford Motor Company built a road that is intentionally potholed. What&rsquo;s more, it&rsquo;s 50 miles in length and actually is designed to replicate how cars meet carnage from bad pavement in 25 different countries.<\/p>\nThe purposefully bad road also has its own gigantic hairdryer.<\/p>\nThe official name of the road is the Lommel Proving Ground, and it is located in Lommel, Belgium, midway between Ford of Europe&rsquo;s development centers and production plants in Germany and the United Kingdom. It&rsquo;s where cars are tested under various trying conditions, which include cobblestone streets still common in parts of Europe, rutted avenues found in China, and with speed bumps that evidently are used extensively in Brazil.<\/p>\nThe &ldquo;hairdryer&rdquo; is a jet-powered blower system (also used at airports) to remove ice and snow when the Lommel track needs drier conditions for a test. Parts of the track include freshwater and saltwater pools to replicate watery conditions. The facility was first built in the 1960s and has been expanded over the decades since. From above, the serpentine course looks like a maze of curves and straightaways within a roughly oval-outline area. The public is not permitted within its confines for safety and competitive reasons.<\/p>\nTo American drivers, one might ask why the company goes to such lengths to replicate what they encounter daily on trips to work, shops and schools. According to AASHTO (the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officers), more than 28 percent of the major urban roads (Interstates, freeways and arterial routes) have pavement that is in &ldquo;substandard condition and provides an unacceptably rough ride to motorists&rdquo; (as reported in Bumpy Roads Ahead: American&rsquo;s Roughest Rides and Strategies to Make our Roads Smoother<\/em>, July 2015). Accounting for major urban and rural roads, AASHTO says only 42 percent of roads in the U.S. are in good condition.<\/p>\nWhat is learned at Ford&rsquo;s Lommel Proving Ground? Skilled test drivers operate cars that contain seismology-inspired equipment that monitors the reaction of vehicles&rsquo; suspension system and other components. Data from the tests are fed back to car designers and engineers to develop vehicles that can better handle the jarring effects of uneven pavement. Reportedly one model, the Fusion V6 Sport sedan, is equipped with a computer-controlled shock absorber system that counteracts the effects of rough roads. According to RoadAndTrack.com, &ldquo;Fusion&rsquo;s adaptive dampers read road conditions every two milliseconds and when it detects the edge of a pothole, it automatically stiffens the particular wheel&rsquo;s damper to its stiffest setting. Effectively, it allows the Fusion to skip over potholes.&rdquo; The magazine provides a <a href="http:\/\/www.roadandtrack.com\/new-cars\/car-technology\/news\/a28232\/fords-fusion-pothole-skip\/" target="_blank">video of this in action<\/a>, and remarks that &ldquo;in practice and visually, it&rsquo;s fairly incredible.&rdquo;<\/p>\nThe good news then is that cars are being made to be more resilient. The bad news, however, might be that poor pavement and gaping potholes are now reaching a point of acceptance. Which is of little value to all other vehicles that still suffer expensive and dangerous bumps from potholes found just about everywhere.<\/p>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n&nbsp;<\/p>

A Road Built to Be Bad

Once upon a time there was the Pet Rock. Today, we have crumbled asphalt, the detritus of pavement gone awry, turned into "pothole-pourri" – packaged and sold online through a pothole-theme retailer.
In case that sounds like an entrepreneurial effort to turn something unpleasant into something a little more fun – and perhaps profitable – then yes, you are correct. Online retailer Dave Stern of Chicago is doing just that with the <a href="http://thepotholestore.com/" target="_blank">Pothole Store</a> online. According to the site, the retailer's mission is "to provide the highest quality, 100% authentic Chicago pothole products at the lowest prices." That includes a certificate of naming rights for individual potholes ($6.99); a "Flat Tire Package" that has includes earrings and a necklace studded with asphalt chunks, pothole-scented air fresheners and a pothole snow dome ($19.99); the pothole-pourri ($3.99); and a contraband-like baggie of pothole chunks sold under names familiar to Chicagoans, where Stern's operation is based: "Skokie Tokie," "Wabash Hash," "Evanstoned" and "Stoney Island" all retail for $3.29 – no medical asphalt prescription required.
What Stern understands and sells is the human desire to laugh off the pain of potholes. Good luck amulets, each holding a single chunk of street, retail for $2.99 which the product catalog explains might save the motorist $567 later in wheel alignment repairs. We all hope it works.
While the retailer qualifies that this is all tongue-in-cheek, it nonetheless touches on the jarring, excruciating experience of car-in-pothole. Along with its sister site, <a href="http://www.justonebadcentury.com/" target="_blank">JustOneBadCentury.com</a>, which celebrates the 100+ years since the Chicago Cubs won a World Series, Windy City drivers/ball fans look forward to a time when potholes and losing ball teams will be in the past.

Pothole Science