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What if Philly’s potholes could tweet their own repair requests?

Taylor Farnsworth , min read

How many times have you been riding your bike or driving around the city and encountered a pothole? Our guess is probably more times than you can count.

This pic comes from a CBS3 story that says last year's pothole season was worse than normal.
This pic comes from a CBS3 story that says last year’s pothole season was worse than normal.

Response time from the Streets Department isn’t always so great when you tweet them a repair request, but imagine what it would be like if the potholes themselves could send their own repair requests every time they’re run over.

PhillyMag’s Property blog pointed out this story from The Atlantic’s CityLab about potholes that literally tweet out their own repair requests when they’re run over by a vehicle.

More from CityLab:

That’s why the TV show Telemetro Reporta has launched the project The Tweeting Pothole (El Hueco Twittero), installing motion-sensitive devices (link in Spanish) in the craters that mar Panama City’s streets. When a car runs over one of them, a tweet is sent automatically to the account of the Ministry of Public Works, according to the site.

So instead of having to tweet about these pesky potholes yourself, the potholes would do it on their own.

Do you think this kind of system would help get our potholes repaired faster in Philly? 

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3 thoughts on “What if Philly’s potholes could tweet their own repair requests?”

  • Fix the streets
    June 5, 2015 at 10:31 am
    Permalink

    This is far more than a pothole, but this post compels me to ask: does anyone know what is going on with the enormous sinkhole/pile of rubble on 9th st. just south of Reed. That thing is huge and has been just sitting there for weeks!

  • Sm
    June 5, 2015 at 11:09 am
    Permalink

    A few weeks back I went (slowly) into a pothole behind the Home Depot/Walmart on Tasker St and Columbus Blvd. I shredded 2 tires and had to get my car towed. About a week later they finally filled in all those potholes after months of them being there. I mean these things were absolutely gigantic. It cost me about $500 for a repair. Who is to blame? Is it solely my fault for driving into the potholes of death or is the responsibility on the city/Home Depot/Walmart? I don’t know if I should try to fight to get my money back.

  • SuzyQT
    June 5, 2015 at 2:31 pm
    Permalink

    @Sm: that’s all on you. Even if it was full of water and dark and you couldn’t see it, it is all your responsability.

Comments are closed.