Trying for a different perspective on potholes
Posted on May 8th, 2008 – 6:05 AMBy Roadguy
If I were more of an optimist, I guess I’d think of it as my “welcome to work” pothole.
It’s directly in front of a parking-lot entrance here at headquarters, and compared to other potholes on our highways and side streets, it’s a breeze. Its position makes it fairly easy to avoid by using the “straddle” maneuver, and anyone driving that close to the curb is probably going pretty slowly anyway. Although it’s hardly tiny, it’s much less threatening than the canyons that trip up one’s tires at 60 miles per hour on the freeway.
Except for mechanics and the people who make hot-mix asphalt, nobody loves potholes. But maybe that’s because potholes are misunderstood. Maybe if we would just take a moment to step outside of ourselves and look at things from the pothole’s point of view, we’d have a more favorable opinion.
Hmm. Nope. Still hate ‘em.
(Photo taken Wednesday from inside the “welcome to work” pothole.)
10 Responses to "Trying for a different perspective on potholes"
Roadguy, either this is a very deep pot hole or…. well, I thought you were taller.
Hallmark gets a hold of this, and we’ll be having National Pothole Appreciation Day.
This isn’t going to help things either.
http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_9175487?nclick_check=1
St. Paul decideds the streets just aren’t worth it.
Well, at least I will be able to see Ford Parkway crumble back in to gravel. It’s most of the way there already.
Crapcam is no longer crapcam, Roadguy! This is a pretty sweet–and scary–picture.
I love the perspective in that photograph.
It’s just…waiting there…waiting for the next tire…next perfectly balanced alignment…to destroy!
I sense a new B-movie: Attack of the Killer Potholes.
Steve K.’s comment is closer than you think. My brother-in-law from Wisconsin told me recently that his area is not going to be able to afford the upkeep that Wisconsinites are used to having done every year on their roadways. There’s no money to keep cutting the grass, fix all the potholes, clean the streets. At first I was shocked when he told me that, then I wondered if other areas are experiencing the same thing.
Next thing you know, we’re going to have an “Adopt A Pothole” like we now have “Adopt A Highway” here in MN. Wouldn’t that be weird. I have no clue how to fill a pothole. I wouldn’t mind learning, but currently that knowledge is not in my head.
I recall reading a possibly apocryphal stories years ago. There was the mother of all potholes in a street, and the city ignored repeated requests to fix it. Finally a resident planted flowers and a small tree in it. It was fixed the next day.
I just had to replace the broken sway bar joints in my Cherokee. You’d think something designed as tough as a that would be immune to potholes, but apparently not.
This is what gradually happens when we make the choice to move from a high-tax, high-service state to a middling, muddle along state.
I don’t love paying taxes–my property taxes have gone up 150% in 12 years, but as a state we really blew it by not indexing the gas tax to inflation a decade or more ago.
And we aren’t going to get indexing as long as a certain anti-tax person grips his red pen tightly in St. Paul.
JH: The cartoon logo of me reflects my actual size.
With that pothole, I see potential for a oceanic diorama. All you need is a lot of blue jello and some of those cheese fish snacks (dont put them in until the jello has started to form a bit or they all come to the top!).
