Bill The City For Pothole Damage: THE VOTER
Ottawans should be able to bill the city for all the damage and havoc created by poor road maintenance.
That might give the city the required boot to the backside so that it develops a more aggressive maintenance plan where potholes don’t endanger residents and their vehicles.
While that would undoubtedly reduce the income of car dealers, it would greatly improve the lifespan of our vehicles. Imagine being able to count on leaving your home and getting to your destination on time and unscathed.
Safe, intact roads should be the standard in the city instead of the mess we face now. It is possible to have a spring when huge potholes are not a part of daily life. We just need the city to behave responsibly.
Why can’t the city undertake a blitz to catch up to the current road repair backlog so that, instead of putting millions into pothole repair, those funds can, in future, be dedicated to maintenance? As well as improving our roads, it would also significantly reduce the wear and tear on city vehicles such as buses, police cars, firetrucks and ambulances, all of which spend many more hours on city roads than most personal vehicles do. How much would this save the city in repair bills? How much would the lifespan of these city vehicles be lengthened if they weren’t being rattled to pieces on city roads? A longer lifespan means decreased costs for new vehicle acquisition. Those savings could be redirected to road maintenance.
The same applies to cabs, delivery vehicles and other privately-owned high-use vehicles. How much could our bills for these services be reduced if they weren’t paying through the nose for repairs due to poor road maintenance?
The road-maintenance-related bills continue to be paid to repair the damage. Why not spend that money on positives rather than negatives?
The Voter is a respected community activist and long-time Bulldog commenter who prefers to keep her identity private.
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It’s a lovely thought, Madame Voter. Sadly, all requests for reimbursement sit in a file until someone with enough spare time can haul out that big red stamp and pound ‘rejected’ on each one. Yours truly had no option but to shell out $375 for a new front tire after hitting a massive one near Hampton Park. Apparently, no complaints were received to alert the city (which I find hard to believe). That’s their excuse de jour for rejecting claims …
Given the number of winter crews looking for something to do, filling potholes should be a no-brainer for a good manager or crew leader to latch on to.
As a city, they must do better.
I find it surprising that the cycling lobby isn’t making the same complaint about conditions on bike lanes. Fat bikes with shocks may become the commuting bike of choice on Ottawa roads.
The beauty of riding a bicycle is if you encounter a pothole all that is required to avoid it is a quick look in the mirror to ensure no car will hit you out and a veer around the offending hole. If collision-avoidance is not possible then hitting the brakes and waiting until it’s safe to proceed is an effecttive plan B. Unfortunately, the veering (into another lane) option is not always possible for an automobile because the driver risks a head-on collision with a vehicle driving in the opposite direction. The critical factors are total width of the vehicle and its manueverability.
Howard,
One of the most dangerous elements of potholes is that, in some circumstances, you don’t even see them before you are upon them so evasive action isn’t possible. Examples would be both travelling at night or when the pothole and the roadway around it are covered with water. There are also places across the city where the potholes are so large and/or there are so many that the only way to avoid them would be through levitation.
Any of those situations would present a problem whether you’re a cyclist or in a vehicle. The narrowness of a bicycle tire may have you in a more precarious position than the person in a car because your tire will go right into the hole rather than straddling it as a car tire might.