I did this on my honeymoon in hawaii in 1999, the hotel had a water main with a open cover and I was carrying a cooler as we were going for a trip on the hana highway all day and I stepped in the hole and basically severely damaged my ankle and it basically ruined my honeymoon as I could barely walk and enjoy it. Guess I should have sued the hotel. They didnt even give me a new cooler.
@@werefrogofassyria6609 Don't threaten anything, just file and see what they say. Social media is best for when you see someone's dog in the supermarket or are served cold soup, not for their negligence over a preventable injury.
@@orppranator5230 OK, I would file litigation and discuss doing that with my attorney to get their advice. I am not opposed to utilising social media for such a task, but few people actually take disgruntled former customers seriously. Without an external article or write up to back up an incident, doing a self-promoted post just makes the instigator look bad in a lot of cases. Opinions are like...yada yada... everybody's got one!
Forty years ago my friend in NYC was crushed in his car by a truck that fell over onto him because of a pothole. Since the city was informed of the pothole but didn't fix it the city paid him.
Many years ago in my city a individual lost control of his motorcycle on a very rough road and died as a result. I the following lawsuit the city claimed they could not be held responsible because they did not have any complaints about the road condition and therefore could not have known about it. The city lost when it came to light that the individual responsible for road maintenance used that stretch of road every day on his way to work. Real bad case or ostrich syndrome.
In my home city, the city has 24 or 48 hours (not positive of time) to repair/fill any pothole once it has been reported, or they can be held accountable for any damage to a vehicle running over the pothole. Our street is an older street, but everytime I call and inform the city of a pothole or road damage, the next day, usually, I'll see the pothole at a minimum, has been filled with gravel or "hot top". I don't live in an upscale neighborhood or a heavily traveled area, but my city always steps up to the plate and gets the job done. Kudos to them!
My wife's cousin was a city clowncil member here in Seattle about 20 years ago, and he flat-out admitted that while they easily COULD keep all the potholes repaired, they wouldn't because badly repaired city streets were a time-tested way to get bond issues passed. Of course, the money raised by the bond issue just went into the general fund and the promised street repairs never happened until they were so bad that they started breaking axles.
My city had someone show up to a city council meeting asking about if/when the section of road by their house was going to be repaved. He said he'd contacted the city and public works about it for years, and public works even broke snowplow blade edges in winter due to the poor road surface. He said to the council, "Since you on this board may not be familiar with the road in question, here's an example" and pulled out a large manilla folder from his briefcase and slid out a 8 × 11in inch chunk of road. The board looked at it and said "Sir, removing sections of road is a saftey hazard please put it back." He replied "if me removing this small example is a safety hazard, shouldn't it be glued down better?" Still took them three more years before repaving that section of road 😅
I got a payment from my metro. Clobbered a pothole left by them fixing a water pipe, filled with water in the rain. Put in the claim for a new tyre, plus installation and balance, along with the filled in claim form, and with the pothole marked on a google street view image ( showed the valve they had dug up to fix the leak), and after 4 months got the settlement of 70% of the cost, which was pretty good considering the tyre damaged had around 50% of life left. Of course now they have so many pothole claims that it is easier to find streets with potholes than to find 50m without one. Then you get the stupid things like cities attempting to sue people for fixing potholed outside their house, because that is supposed to be a municipal job, but they have not fixed for a decade. That one the city is losing badly, both in court and in public opinion, because they are getting now thousands of pothole complaints daily, and also getting sued left right and centre for failing to fix them as well.
Our city makes it's own potholes. They resurface streets with an inch or two of asphalt but then do not raise the manholes or valve box covers. You end up with 2 or 3 manhole-potholes per block that are usually in the tire tracks and several 10" holes in random places. Either get a front end alignment every 6 months or dodge the holes and get pulled over for DWI.
Officer: Why were you swerving back there? Driver: Pothole and manhole obstacle course. Officer: How many did you hit? Driver: Only three today. My best score is just one. Yours? Officer: We're tied. Have a nice day.
A lot of places, a lot of smaller potholes could be filled with a guy with a shovel, a leafblower, and a pickup truck full of Quickcrete asphalt and a tamper. There was a pothole near me that got reported dozens of times, nothing ever got done about it, so my ex just went down, bought a $20 bag of quickcrete asphalt, filled in the hole with a little extra, put a board over it, drove over it a couple times to tamp it down and then it was good for the rest of the time we lived there. For the city, a single guy could probably fill like.. 10-20 potholes a day.. Shovel out the loose gravel into a bucket, leaf blow out the dust, drop in the quickcrete and tamp it down. It won't be as durable as a proper pothole filling job, but it'll be way cheaper. Like 1/10th the price.
The town where I grew up had many elm lined streets. I remember one in particular. The road dipped down for a few blocks then back up again. The elms formed a green leafy tunnel where because of the dip you couldn't see anything but the road disappearing into this blocks long tunnel. Absolutely beautiful in the summer and fall. And yes there were banks of leaves. The wind would blow them into drifts so some of the cars parked on the road were almost buried in leaves. Was great fun to run through those drifts.
Regarding potholes, the highway district where I live created an app that can be used to notify the district of potholes and other road problems. The app asks a series of questions, asks for a photo, and then puts it all together into the format they need, and sends it to your default email app. It's up to you to then hit "send" from there. When they fix the issue, they will reply that it's done. (If you are reporting something that isn't a quick fix, they let you know that it's on the schedule, and set an expectation for when they expect to get to it.) Sometimes, people report things that are on private streets or streets that belong to another jurisdiction, in which case they report back who has jurisdiction over that street. It's a nifty system, but very few people know the app is available.
@@aniquinstark4347 That would definitely get the word out. That said, their phone number is easy to find, as is their website. Also, our highway district is independent from local city and county governments -- which is not common in the US -- so they are focused 100% on roads. They aren't splitting a budget between parks and law enforcement and libraries and fire departments etc. The system had detractors, but I think it works well.
Damn. And the city of Richmond wouldn’t do anything about me busting 2 tires, bending both wheels, and literally breaking the front strut on a pot hole that was 8” deep and 3’ across. Over 3k in damages and they just basically said “oh well”
I sell concrete work. We were doing half of an entrance to a Verizon store. Got done and closed it all off with delineator’s (tall skinny cones) string line and ribbon. A few hours later dude came walking up, while texting, and tripped on the cones and cracked his head open and got blood all over my new concrete. He was sued… And he paid us to replace it.
Same thing happened to me once: Happened while I was walking across the University of Connecticut campus on one beautiful fall day on one of their lovely newer brick sidewalks covered in fallen leaves. I had walked that route many times, just on that day, I happened to find the one spot in the walk that had 2 or 3 bricks missing which caused me to trip and fall kinda hard. I did not sue them, but called their maintenance department and let them know. From what I recall, they stuck a temporary ill fitting brick in the hole, which disappeared a short time later, and they never bothered to fix it in the rest of the time I was a student there. It was far less concerning than the crumbling concrete sidewalks practically everywhere else I guess, which they also never addressed.
I use the potholes in the road to reconnect my air conditioner control wires in my dashboard. If I hit them just right, my A/C will turn on. One of these days I’ll pay someone to find that bad connection, but until then, potholes are my solution!
I've been in Detroit the last week for work and the roads are the worst I've ever seen in my life. My second or third day here, I hit a pothole so big I thought I blew out the tire. The previous two weeks down the road in Columbus, the roads were so much nicer, so it can't be blamed on being in the Midwest.
We have a public area by a pond maintained by our HOA. I stepped in a hole out there while walking my dog. It was knee deep. I didn't get hurt, just surprised. I did notify the HOA, and left a marker. It was eventually filled in.
I slipped on a patch of ice on a sidewalk outside a public park in the Windsor Ontario area (not Windsor) and seriously messed up my kneecap. Didn't realize it at the time. Given that its ten years on probably not much I can do about it.
Slipped on ice sidewalk at my old apartment complex in Ohio. They had huge decorative rocks on the grassy aprons between the walks and road. My head landed inches from one. A kind man entering the complex immediately stopped his truck and ran over to make sure I was ok after I disappeared behind the rock.
My aunt stepped off the curb outside of city hall and broke her ankle, a police officer approached and offered his assistance, she asked if his radio would connect to city hall, decades ago so she was not sure and didn’t have a cell phone, he said yes and she said “call the city attorney” he said, I’m not sure we need to go there right now, she repeated her request, officer still protested. She in a lot of pain was not making the connection, then told him hervhusband was the city attorney. Made the call then my uncle stepped out and took her to ER. So much of what is discussed here I can make a connection too. Thank you Steve
There was an episode of The Paper Chase where one of the characters hit a pothole with his bicycle and got injured. He sued the city and won using the argument that the road maintenance people were professionals at repairing streets while he was not a professional bicycle rider. I'd love to hear Steve's analysis of the case presented, but reviewing Tv and movies is more LeagleEagle's thing.
A motorcyclist was killed on the road where I used to live after the DOT scraped a section of road several inches down in preparation to repaving. They went around obstructions like manhole covers in the middle of the lanes and left them sticking up about 4 inches with no markings or traffic cones. 55 mph speed limit, unlit section of a 2 lane truck route. The motorcyclist hit one dead on after dark that night, and somersaulted and was killed. This was in Ohio. Don't know if his family got any compensation at all.
I know one way to get potholes filled in. In the UK there is people who are drawing phallic shaped images around them and labeling them wanksy. Maybe we need to start doing that here :)
@@Wrangzilla I'm in the US dude. I know about wanksy. And trust me as incompetent as some big city police are especially in my city.. Unless a giant meteor is about hit the earth they aren't gonna care.
I remember reading about someone in New York City that got tired of a huge pothole on their street. They kept reporting it but was ignored, so they planted a tree in it. The pothole was repaired the next day.
Wow . I broke some ribs in a moutainbike race . My front tire fell into a hole filled with mulch . I went over the bars and that's where I got injured . It was strange they had photographers and race volunteers at that specific spot. When I was on the ground in a bit of shock I remember hearing a conversation of why that hole wasn't filled in . They asked if I was ok . I got up and finished the race in rib pain. The photographer got a picture of my tire going in the hole right before I went ota which is my avatar . I wonder if I could have made a case for the injury under negligence . Even if the hole was still present but not filled with compost I would have been able to change my riding approach to avoid injury . Now you do sign liability waivers before a race . Trails are groomed before races usually and covering the hole would have taken a few minutes .
I doubt the waiver would actually cover that, but you'd have to fight it out in court. Waivers usually cover reasonably foreseeable risks but "unmarked concealed pothole" seems like a negligence issue, especially if they have active course grooming that happens ahead of time.
Back in the 70s in Chicago, we called their potholes "elephant traps". Small cars weren't common then, they could have almost disappeared in some of them.
Many years ago, 30ish. A place I worked got everyones cars covered in paint over spray from a building across the street being air sprayed. Everyone got their cars exterior detailed and buffed out.
In Springfield Illinois, walking across the street and stepping into a pothole, you can win a judgement against the city if you are injured. At least you could in the 18th century when your attorney was Abraham Lincoln. True story. He was practicing law in Springfield when he represented a client in just such an accident.
I was in a nearby city just out of state in their city park nearly 11 years ago. Sitting @ a park bench (think outdoor lunch bench), the dry rot wood broke tumbling me to the ground. I was shook up & bruised, but figured it would be a lot of trouble suing that city government.
Either 60 Minutes or 20/20 did a story in the eighties about a lawyer in NYC that reported potholes all over the city. When people got hurt the city would get sued by this guy and because the city was aware of these potholes but had years of backlogs on maintenance the city paid out…
What? A luxury, high income, low density neighborhood DOESNT produce enough taxes to fix it's own infrastructure and utilities? Who could have ever predicted a financial situation such as this in a country that doesnt tax it's rich!?!
As far as I'm aware, here in Australia practically all suburban and city roads have side walks. I think it is part of the process of building new roads and property developments that new roads are made with side walk from the get-go. I've driven through new developments, before any houses have gone up, and there are roads, sidewalks and driveways already built.
I wonder how much sidewalk you can build, or how many potholes you can fill, for the combined total of $39,500 that was paid out in claims. But I suspect that their insurance probably shouldered that cost for them anyway.
my question is... the roads are there, funding through taxes to upkeep them are there but when the money that has accrued for this has been used for some other purpose "oh we have a surplus" now they want to raise taxes for mismanagement????
Homeowners normally oppose sidewalks because it becomes the responsibility of the homeowner to clear the sidewalk. Slip and fall liability shifts to the homeowner rather than the city when there is a sidewalk.
Where I used to live there's a street where the potholes are so bad, you can't ride a bicycle down it without getting a severe injury unless you knew exactly where every hole was. You would have to weave back and forth like a crazy person just to travel from one end of the street to the other. It's been 6 years since I moved from there, and Just for kicks, I drove down that street in my car. You really need to wear your seatbelts if you drive the speed limit, because the holes have gotten worse. What's crazy about this is, there is a parallel street that runs through the neighborhood, and there isn't a single pothole on it.
Spend money for safety to sweep leaves on streets (for cars and people) cost X Two lawsuits in a couple years cost Y Sounds like a business man is running the show.
I lived in Mandeville Canyon (Brentwood Ca.) in the’80’s and if I called in a complaint of a pothole it was usually fixed the same day, certainly in two or three.
I was crossing the street & stepped in a pot hole, fell down so hard I had the wind knocked out of me & couldn't move... & a BUS WAS COMING! 😮 (it wasn't in a crosswalk, I was jaywalking). I was sooo scared. No one stopped. No one helped. I barely made it up & out of there alive..I truly thought i was dead.
Where I grew up, in the Chicago area, we raked the leave into the gutter and the city came by with a truck with a big vacuum. The leaves were sucked up and ground up for space and composted. Later, you were required to bag the leaves in a 50 gallon paper bag which you bought from the city. The city would pick up the bags and compost them. Same with grass. That's when I decided to start a compost pile. I'm not paying for bags.
The Michigan Act 51 is a bad piece of legislation in my opinion. The counties are responsible for 90,000 miles of roads. The state is responsible for under 10,000 miles of roads. Yet the counties get less than 40% of the gas tax money even though they have 10 times the amount of roads. So they go to the townships and require them to do a property tax increase for road resurfacing. The problem is in Canton Township vs Wayne County the courts found basically that the township didn't have standing to sue the county over roads. That the 1951 law gave all responsibility to the county. So now we are in a position where we have to pay for it but the county has no accountability to do good repairs. The truth is their motivation is to have the roads in poor condition so they can extort more money from the townships. This is a systemic issue with the law and will not be fixed until this law is changed. But there is zero will at the state level to fix it because they get the majority of the gas tax.
If they stop spending money on all the bull crap, and they prob can cut half the useless jobs in the city government, they can have roads fixed...... every city, state and fed spends so much money on wasteful stuff
I had damage to a tire rim from incompetent construction in Phoenix. They put probably a 6 inch deep trench across the entire road, didn't properly mark it in a fashion that could be seen during heavy traffic or provide enough warning; if you were in the center lane, as I was, you'd never see the warning. I hit that thing going around 40 mph. Scraped off enough from my front tires that you could see the belting (due for replacement anyway, and still held air), and put a dent on one of my rims. Fortunately, the damage was purely cosmetic, but I definitely could have sued the city for that one. In Virginia, I got them to repair a pothole in a left turn lane. They didn't want to repair it because they were going to resurface the road in a month or two anyway, but after I complained a second time and stated in my complaint that it was deep enough to damage a truck or SUV they decided to fix it. In that state you CAN make claims for pothole damage.
There is a photo somewhere of a small birthday cake with 2 candles next to a pothole. The neighbors were “celebrating” the pothole becoming 2 years old.
I believe that in Quincy Massachusetts there's a road called Furnace Brook, and a section of it is so covered with leaves in the fall, that it's even dangerous to drive when it's wet! I just noticed this past fall that the town raking up the leaves in this section. I'm wondering if anything like this has something to do with it.
Watching Not Just Bikes channel made me realize streets are impossible to keep up to date without bankrupting the city. Guess Ann Arbor is now experiencing this every time roads need to be repaved or repaired.
If a government can't manage to have acceptable streets and other infrastructure then they are totally useless. The real question is where did all the money that DIDN'T fix the roads etc go? Bureaucracies in general are exceedingly great at wasting money. Blew out a tire and bent a rim about a month ago in a hole in the road... Curious I looked to see if compensation was possible... Turns out it is 'possible' but rest assured the effort required exceeds the benefits.
I have a problem with the statement by the guy that that's a rich area and they should be taking care of the streets better. So by his statement then poor neighborhoods should not get as much attention.
With that comment about not needing sidewalks, I'd recommend checking out the TH-cam channel of Not Just Bikes. Specifically the series on Strong Towns.
I hit a storm grate on my bicycle one of the ones that goes with traffic threw my off my bicycle at 18mph. Went to urgent care with messed up hands. Didn’t think to sue because I’m not money hungry and I had only superficial injuries. I mention it to a guy in my cycling group who works for the Maryland DOT along with pictures of my hands and face. It was fixed super fast fastest I’ve ever seen the DOT work on getting something done.
I don't remember where it was, but I remember a story where a man who couldn't get potholes filled, started planting flowers in them. I suppose it at least made them more visible and pointed out the delays.
I'm always amused when a city gets completely bent out of shape when local residents take it upon themselves to fix large potholes the city has ignored for an extensive period of time (months to years). It's as if the patch is more dangerous than a hole in the road that you could lose a VW bug in.
It should never be hard to sue those that provide a public service when any losses occur. If it's private property that's a whole different story! Private property is not open to the public! Anytime a person enters private property it's on the person that enters!
I worked with a guy who threatened to sure the city because they didn't shovel the corner where the sidewalk was. He said he slipped on the ice and fell. My theory is, he slipped on the Molson's Ice
It is basically leaving a "Man Trap" for unsuspecting persons. Whether its in the woods or on the footpath, it's still a "Man Trap" left out for some unsuspecting pedestrian.
Reminds me of a huge pothole in butte Mt it was huge maybe 6’ around and 2+’ deep most people would see it and move over to avoid hitting it. The cops sitting near there would then issue a ticket for crossing the double yellow line.
I was walking near a crosswalk and didn’t notice a 6 inch gap between two steel road plates. My whole leg went through and hit a pipe. Still can’t walk without pain 3 years later. Didn’t occur to me to sue. Probably too late now.
@@SeanBZA I just looked. Seems the statute of limitations in NJ is 2 years. And it’s even worse for me bc if you’re suing a NJ government entity, there’s a 90 day deadline. Oh well, it really doesn’t matter that much. A lawsuit couldn’t bring back the one thing I really want, which is to walk normally again. And to be able to go on a run. I ran 8 marathons before this happened. Now I can’t run more than a few blocks.
so these highly intelligent are unable to think there may be a hole in the road under the leaves all the while knowing potholes in the city streets are prevalent ?
Asphalt is a poor but cheap repair for potholes that only seems to exacerbate the growth of the original pothole. That is if the city doesn't frequently re‐tar the roadway. Maybe the city should look into roads that can percolate water through them leaving it less likely to freeze causing expansion /contraction causing potholes. Also if you put the right things into the mixture could repurpose some of the unreachable trash like Styrofoam, cigarette butts and ground-up tires.
As someone who works for a municipality in another state, yes, if the city is aware of the issue, then we could be liable. I say could because we do allow encroachments into the city right of way and those encroachments have to have insurance that indemnifies the city. As a rant against my political leaders, it is my understanding that typically maintenance needs to be funded at ~10% of the value of the assets (bridges, roads, etc.) to keep up and higher to actually upgrade/repair. Normally, maintenance is funded at 0-1%...as maintenance is general fund (paid directly by city via taxes) verses capital expenditure (paid by bonds/debt). edit: spelling
Yeah traveling from Ann arbor to yipsilanti is like crossing railroad tracks as soon as you cross the cityline you go from a rich neighborhood to sloansville literally
In the case of the leaves , the person that wants the trees should clean up the leaves or get someone else to do it for them either voluntarily or for pay
@@orppranator5230 when it comes to another persons mess its only if it's your job and you're paid to do so. At least we know where to dump our extra leaves now 🤣😂🤣👍🤟👌. On your property due to the fact you'll clean it up like you claim a normal person should Highlighted reply Orppranator said 7 hours ago (edited) No, you rake the leaves on your property like a normal person. Regardless of where the leaves came from.
In Iowa, a special law was passed that says if a bicyclist is injured as a result of a pot hole, the one responsible for the maintenance of the road is not liable for any damages. This occurred a few years back when a biker died after the poor road condition caused the bike to suddenly stop and he flew off and became injured from the crash.
So, rather than make the road safe enough that people don't die, they created a law to protect themselves from ramifications? That's utterly despicable.
When I was running for City Council I’m a small town the city couldn’t afford to maintain their existing sidewalks but got a grant for installing new sidewalks. So they built more sidewalks which, in the long term will just exasperate the problem. Not to mention many of the new “sidewalks” were ADA compliant corners but with no connecting sidewalk. AND the ADA compliant corners caused people in wheel chairs and powered chairs to flip face first onto the high crowned roads of the city and several in whee chairs were up in arms. To solve the many sidewalk issues the city went around and issued code enforcement tickets on every house with a bad sidewalk giving them 30 days to repair of the city would do the work and bill them. Non payment would mean a Leon on the property. Some savvy citizens did some research and found in the old documents that at some point in the distant past the city had put a referendum in the ballot that homeowners would all grant (by its passage) that area 1 Ft inside the sidewalk to the middle of the road to the city in exchange for the city adjusting their property size and thus taxes. It past and they did it. So the city owned all those bad sidewalks and it was standing room only when that little factoid was presented to the city council and they all had the same question. “So in 30 days all the sidewalks will be fixed…..RIGHT?”
Unrepaired potholes can and will eventually grow large and deep enough to destroy a perfectly good suspension on any vehicle... In 2023, one would think this could be eliminated althoether!
He didn't ask for enough!! "Al Sharpton’s daughter gets $95K settlement for sprained ankle", even though she was shown climbing a mountain after the "so-called" sprain occurred.
I wish is was easier. I had to replace 3 tire rims (no just standard rims) because of a road that was in such disrepair, and had no street lights, but I had to drive on the city never got around to actually doing anything real about it. It took three news reports and 5 years before they finally fixed that road.
The transcripts of the San Francisco Government Audit & Oversight Committee, record settlements on nearly every session, of payments for trip & fall injuries from sidewalks & potholes. $15,000 to $22,000 being the norm.
I know sometimes we can't afford to get all the potholes. But our DEI administrator makes $140k/yr. I guess it's a matter of priority as much as anything.
How is AA supposed to keep their streets repaired when there's no money in the State budget for fixing the roads? I mean, it's not like Michigan has a $9.2 Billion budget surplus or anything....
I did this on my honeymoon in hawaii in 1999, the hotel had a water main with a open cover and I was carrying a cooler as we were going for a trip on the hana highway all day and I stepped in the hole and basically severely damaged my ankle and it basically ruined my honeymoon as I could barely walk and enjoy it. Guess I should have sued the hotel. They didnt even give me a new cooler.
They should have put the cover back on or had someone directing foot traffic away from the hole in question.
Yeah, you honestly should have sued them.
Today, you threaten to take it on social media.
@@werefrogofassyria6609
Don't threaten anything, just file and see what they say. Social media is best for when you see someone's dog in the supermarket or are served cold soup, not for their negligence over a preventable injury.
@@GeorgeVCohea-dw7ou No, putting it on social media and inflicting bad PR on them is the most powerful tool us peasants have these days.
@@orppranator5230
OK, I would file litigation and discuss doing that with my attorney to get their advice. I am not opposed to utilising social media for such a task, but few people actually take disgruntled former customers seriously. Without an external article or write up to back up an incident, doing a self-promoted post just makes the instigator look bad in a lot of cases. Opinions are like...yada yada... everybody's got one!
Forty years ago my friend in NYC was crushed in his car by a truck that fell over onto him because of a pothole. Since the city was informed of the pothole but didn't fix it the city paid him.
He's lucky he lived to collect anything.
Many years ago in my city a individual lost control of his motorcycle on a very rough road and died as a result. I the following lawsuit the city claimed they could not be held responsible because they did not have any complaints about the road condition and therefore could not have known about it. The city lost when it came to light that the individual responsible for road maintenance used that stretch of road every day on his way to work. Real bad case or ostrich syndrome.
In my home city, the city has 24 or 48 hours (not positive of time) to repair/fill any pothole once it has been reported, or they can be held accountable for any damage to a vehicle running over the pothole. Our street is an older street, but everytime I call and inform the city of a pothole or road damage, the next day, usually, I'll see the pothole at a minimum, has been filled with gravel or "hot top". I don't live in an upscale neighborhood or a heavily traveled area, but my city always steps up to the plate and gets the job done. Kudos to them!
NOT THE NORM
Wish Virginia had those policies lol
My wife's cousin was a city clowncil member here in Seattle about 20 years ago, and he flat-out admitted that while they easily COULD keep all the potholes repaired, they wouldn't because badly repaired city streets were a time-tested way to get bond issues passed. Of course, the money raised by the bond issue just went into the general fund and the promised street repairs never happened until they were so bad that they started breaking axles.
My city had someone show up to a city council meeting asking about if/when the section of road by their house was going to be repaved. He said he'd contacted the city and public works about it for years, and public works even broke snowplow blade edges in winter due to the poor road surface. He said to the council, "Since you on this board may not be familiar with the road in question, here's an example" and pulled out a large manilla folder from his briefcase and slid out a 8 × 11in inch chunk of road. The board looked at it and said "Sir, removing sections of road is a saftey hazard please put it back." He replied "if me removing this small example is a safety hazard, shouldn't it be glued down better?"
Still took them three more years before repaving that section of road 😅
I got a payment from my metro. Clobbered a pothole left by them fixing a water pipe, filled with water in the rain. Put in the claim for a new tyre, plus installation and balance, along with the filled in claim form, and with the pothole marked on a google street view image ( showed the valve they had dug up to fix the leak), and after 4 months got the settlement of 70% of the cost, which was pretty good considering the tyre damaged had around 50% of life left.
Of course now they have so many pothole claims that it is easier to find streets with potholes than to find 50m without one. Then you get the stupid things like cities attempting to sue people for fixing potholed outside their house, because that is supposed to be a municipal job, but they have not fixed for a decade. That one the city is losing badly, both in court and in public opinion, because they are getting now thousands of pothole complaints daily, and also getting sued left right and centre for failing to fix them as well.
I read that ~obscene XXX graffiti gets the potholes noticed & fixed faster than anything else. ✌️
Michigan would go bankrupt if it had to pay out for all the damage potholes cause. Whitless still hasn't fixed the DAM roads .
Our city makes it's own potholes. They resurface streets with an inch or two of asphalt but then do not raise the manholes or valve box covers. You end up with 2 or 3 manhole-potholes per block that are usually in the tire tracks and several 10" holes in random places. Either get a front end alignment every 6 months or dodge the holes and get pulled over for DWI.
Officer: Why were you swerving back there?
Driver: Pothole and manhole obstacle course.
Officer: How many did you hit?
Driver: Only three today. My best score is just one. Yours?
Officer: We're tied. Have a nice day.
😯
Swerving to avoid those is ~ necessary on 🏍️ two wheels.
✌️
A lot of places, a lot of smaller potholes could be filled with a guy with a shovel, a leafblower, and a pickup truck full of Quickcrete asphalt and a tamper. There was a pothole near me that got reported dozens of times, nothing ever got done about it, so my ex just went down, bought a $20 bag of quickcrete asphalt, filled in the hole with a little extra, put a board over it, drove over it a couple times to tamp it down and then it was good for the rest of the time we lived there.
For the city, a single guy could probably fill like.. 10-20 potholes a day.. Shovel out the loose gravel into a bucket, leaf blow out the dust, drop in the quickcrete and tamp it down.
It won't be as durable as a proper pothole filling job, but it'll be way cheaper. Like 1/10th the price.
Community Service for low level misdemeanors
As a teen growing up in the North and having a low car, I had to memorize the potholes in town, every year.
The town where I grew up had many elm lined streets. I remember one in particular. The road dipped down for a few blocks then back up again. The elms formed a green leafy tunnel where because of the dip you couldn't see anything but the road disappearing into this blocks long tunnel. Absolutely beautiful in the summer and fall. And yes there were banks of leaves. The wind would blow them into drifts so some of the cars parked on the road were almost buried in leaves. Was great fun to run through those drifts.
"Cars buried in drift &
Great Fun to Run thru the drift"
Fun end as you run into the car? 😂
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Regarding potholes, the highway district where I live created an app that can be used to notify the district of potholes and other road problems. The app asks a series of questions, asks for a photo, and then puts it all together into the format they need, and sends it to your default email app. It's up to you to then hit "send" from there. When they fix the issue, they will reply that it's done. (If you are reporting something that isn't a quick fix, they let you know that it's on the schedule, and set an expectation for when they expect to get to it.) Sometimes, people report things that are on private streets or streets that belong to another jurisdiction, in which case they report back who has jurisdiction over that street. It's a nifty system, but very few people know the app is available.
The local government should put it on billboards. Especially during winter.
@@aniquinstark4347 That would definitely get the word out. That said, their phone number is easy to find, as is their website. Also, our highway district is independent from local city and county governments -- which is not common in the US -- so they are focused 100% on roads. They aren't splitting a budget between parks and law enforcement and libraries and fire departments etc. The system had detractors, but I think it works well.
Ben back to planking on top of Mic #2, Steve's RHS
Good eyesight. Steve's getting cute putting it edge on.
@@corssecurity Yeah, but it's getting to be a common spot, if you know where to look...😉
Damn. And the city of Richmond wouldn’t do anything about me busting 2 tires, bending both wheels, and literally breaking the front strut on a pot hole that was 8” deep and 3’ across. Over 3k in damages and they just basically said “oh well”
I sell concrete work.
We were doing half of an entrance to a Verizon store. Got done and closed it all off with delineator’s (tall skinny cones) string line and ribbon.
A few hours later dude came walking up, while texting, and tripped on the cones and cracked his head open and got blood all over my new concrete.
He was sued…
And he paid us to replace it.
Same thing happened to me once: Happened while I was walking across the University of Connecticut campus on one beautiful fall day on one of their lovely newer brick sidewalks covered in fallen leaves. I had walked that route many times, just on that day, I happened to find the one spot in the walk that had 2 or 3 bricks missing which caused me to trip and fall kinda hard. I did not sue them, but called their maintenance department and let them know. From what I recall, they stuck a temporary ill fitting brick in the hole, which disappeared a short time later, and they never bothered to fix it in the rest of the time I was a student there. It was far less concerning than the crumbling concrete sidewalks practically everywhere else I guess, which they also never addressed.
Assumption of liability comes to mind.
I use the potholes in the road to reconnect my air conditioner control wires in my dashboard. If I hit them just right, my A/C will turn on.
One of these days I’ll pay someone to find that bad connection, but until then, potholes are my solution!
Is 30 years enough notice for a county to know that a road needs to be replaced? Asking for a friend.
I've been in Detroit the last week for work and the roads are the worst I've ever seen in my life. My second or third day here, I hit a pothole so big I thought I blew out the tire. The previous two weeks down the road in Columbus, the roads were so much nicer, so it can't be blamed on being in the Midwest.
We have a public area by a pond maintained by our HOA. I stepped in a hole out there while walking my dog. It was knee deep. I didn't get hurt, just surprised. I did notify the HOA, and left a marker. It was eventually filled in.
That's one of the reasons I would never live in a city or a town. Why should I pay such a high rent or yearly tax to live in a potholed neighborhood.
I slipped on a patch of ice on a sidewalk outside a public park in the Windsor Ontario area (not Windsor) and seriously messed up my kneecap. Didn't realize it at the time. Given that its ten years on probably not much I can do about it.
Slipped on ice sidewalk at my old apartment complex in Ohio. They had huge decorative rocks on the grassy aprons between the walks and road. My head landed inches from one.
A kind man entering the complex immediately stopped his truck and ran over to make sure I was ok after I disappeared behind the rock.
The question is: if the money that's supposed to go towards the roads isn't being spent on the roads, where is it being spent?
50 bucks of pitch could have save the taxpayers $14,950 plus court costs. Oh, the efficiency of your hard earned tax money being spent.
NYC requires 15 days prior notice in writing that a pothole exists before they will consider any claim for pothole damage
My aunt stepped off the curb outside of city hall and broke her ankle, a police officer approached and offered his assistance, she asked if his radio would connect to city hall, decades ago so she was not sure and didn’t have a cell phone, he said yes and she said “call the city attorney” he said, I’m not sure we need to go there right now, she repeated her request, officer still protested. She in a lot of pain was not making the connection, then told him hervhusband was the city attorney. Made the call then my uncle stepped out and took her to ER. So much of what is discussed here I can make a connection too. Thank you Steve
I'd step in a shallow hole for $15K! I'm in Minnesota, we have some epic potholes here - sometimes it's like driving a slalom course 😂
There was an episode of The Paper Chase where one of the characters hit a pothole with his bicycle and got injured. He sued the city and won using the argument that the road maintenance people were professionals at repairing streets while he was not a professional bicycle rider. I'd love to hear Steve's analysis of the case presented, but reviewing Tv and movies is more LeagleEagle's thing.
depends on the jury to who they side with really in the end and if people that lost appeal the verdict
I was minding my own business walking near the Grand Canyon and slipped in an unexpected crevice.
Mother Nature, I'm coming for you!
He compelled Professor Kingsfield to testify.
A motorcyclist was killed on the road where I used to live after the DOT scraped a section of road several inches down in preparation to repaving. They went around obstructions like manhole covers in the middle of the lanes and left them sticking up about 4 inches with no markings or traffic cones. 55 mph speed limit, unlit section of a 2 lane truck route. The motorcyclist hit one dead on after dark that night, and somersaulted and was killed. This was in Ohio. Don't know if his family got any compensation at all.
I know one way to get potholes filled in. In the UK there is people who are drawing phallic shaped images around them and labeling them wanksy. Maybe we need to start doing that here :)
Yeah. They will put that person under the jail when they find out who it is here in the US. The crooks in govt don’t like pushback from the peasants.
Doing the same here, just spray painting the ruling party name around them.
@@Wrangzilla I'm in the US dude. I know about wanksy. And trust me as incompetent as some big city police are especially in my city.. Unless a giant meteor is about hit the earth they aren't gonna care.
I remember reading about someone in New York City that got tired of a huge pothole on their street. They kept reporting it but was ignored, so they planted a tree in it. The pothole was repaired the next day.
Wow . I broke some ribs in a moutainbike race . My front tire fell into a hole filled with mulch . I went over the bars and that's where I got injured . It was strange they had photographers and race volunteers at that specific spot. When I was on the ground in a bit of shock I remember hearing a conversation of why that hole wasn't filled in . They asked if I was ok . I got up and finished the race in rib pain. The photographer got a picture of my tire going in the hole right before I went ota which is my avatar . I wonder if I could have made a case for the injury under negligence . Even if the hole was still present but not filled with compost I would have been able to change my riding approach to avoid injury . Now you do sign liability waivers before a race . Trails are groomed before races usually and covering the hole would have taken a few minutes .
I doubt the waiver would actually cover that, but you'd have to fight it out in court. Waivers usually cover reasonably foreseeable risks but "unmarked concealed pothole" seems like a negligence issue, especially if they have active course grooming that happens ahead of time.
Back in the 70s in Chicago, we called their potholes "elephant traps". Small cars weren't common then, they could have almost disappeared in some of them.
Many years ago, 30ish. A place I worked got everyones cars covered in paint over spray from a building across the street being air sprayed. Everyone got their cars exterior detailed and buffed out.
I cam imagine signs going up now, "Dangerous Road--Jog at your own risk".
In my city people have died because of potholes but nothing ever happens
In Springfield Illinois, walking across the street and stepping into a pothole, you can win a judgement against the city if you are injured. At least you could in the 18th century when your attorney was Abraham Lincoln. True story. He was practicing law in Springfield when he represented a client in just such an accident.
Abraham Lincoln wasn't born until the 19th century, unless you're referring to some Abraham Lincoln besides the vampire hunter we all know and love.
I was in a nearby city just out of state in their city park nearly 11 years ago. Sitting @ a park bench (think outdoor lunch bench), the dry rot wood broke tumbling me to the ground. I was shook up & bruised, but figured it would be a lot of trouble suing that city government.
Either 60 Minutes or 20/20 did a story in the eighties about a lawyer in NYC that reported potholes all over the city. When people got hurt the city would get sued by this guy and because the city was aware of these potholes but had years of backlogs on maintenance the city paid out…
What? A luxury, high income, low density neighborhood DOESNT produce enough taxes to fix it's own infrastructure and utilities? Who could have ever predicted a financial situation such as this in a country that doesnt tax it's rich!?!
In that case special fees should be taxed on those neighborhoods to fully fund the costs.
As far as I'm aware, here in Australia practically all suburban and city roads have side walks. I think it is part of the process of building new roads and property developments that new roads are made with side walk from the get-go. I've driven through new developments, before any houses have gone up, and there are roads, sidewalks and driveways already built.
I wonder how much sidewalk you can build, or how many potholes you can fill, for the combined total of $39,500 that was paid out in claims. But I suspect that their insurance probably shouldered that cost for them anyway.
my question is... the roads are there, funding through taxes to upkeep them are there but when the money that has accrued for this has been used for some other purpose "oh we have a surplus" now they want to raise taxes for mismanagement????
When a municipality adds an easement to my property, do they not have to compensate me?
Homeowners normally oppose sidewalks because it becomes the responsibility of the homeowner to clear the sidewalk. Slip and fall liability shifts to the homeowner rather than the city when there is a sidewalk.
The amount of these craters I dodge every day while driving along the beautiful city streets of Chicago has become a 6th sense.
City should pass a law prohibiting jogging on the street.
Where I used to live there's a street where the potholes are so bad, you can't ride a bicycle down it without getting a severe injury unless you knew exactly where every hole was. You would have to weave back and forth like a crazy person just to travel from one end of the street to the other. It's been 6 years since I moved from there, and Just for kicks, I drove down that street in my car. You really need to wear your seatbelts if you drive the speed limit, because the holes have gotten worse. What's crazy about this is, there is a parallel street that runs through the neighborhood, and there isn't a single pothole on it.
It happened to me. I did get city to reimburse me. What helped is the video from a dashcam that saved me the trouble.
Spend money for safety to sweep leaves on streets (for cars and people) cost X
Two lawsuits in a couple years cost Y
Sounds like a business man is running the show.
I lived in Mandeville Canyon (Brentwood Ca.) in the’80’s and if I called in a complaint of a pothole it was usually fixed the same day, certainly in two or three.
I was crossing the street & stepped in a pot hole, fell down so hard I had the wind knocked out of me & couldn't move... & a BUS WAS COMING! 😮 (it wasn't in a crosswalk, I was jaywalking). I was sooo scared. No one stopped. No one helped. I barely made it up & out of there alive..I truly thought i was dead.
Where I grew up, in the Chicago area, we raked the leave into the gutter and the city came by with a truck with a big vacuum. The leaves were sucked up and ground up for space and composted. Later, you were required to bag the leaves in a 50 gallon paper bag which you bought from the city. The city would pick up the bags and compost them. Same with grass. That's when I decided to start a compost pile. I'm not paying for bags.
Paying these claims at a rate of once a year is very cheap compared to the cost of actually fixing all the potholes.
The Michigan Act 51 is a bad piece of legislation in my opinion. The counties are responsible for 90,000 miles of roads. The state is responsible for under 10,000 miles of roads. Yet the counties get less than 40% of the gas tax money even though they have 10 times the amount of roads. So they go to the townships and require them to do a property tax increase for road resurfacing. The problem is in Canton Township vs Wayne County the courts found basically that the township didn't have standing to sue the county over roads. That the 1951 law gave all responsibility to the county. So now we are in a position where we have to pay for it but the county has no accountability to do good repairs. The truth is their motivation is to have the roads in poor condition so they can extort more money from the townships. This is a systemic issue with the law and will not be fixed until this law is changed. But there is zero will at the state level to fix it because they get the majority of the gas tax.
In a few years all the streets will be gone as we won't need them.
If they stop spending money on all the bull crap, and they prob can cut half the useless jobs in the city government, they can have roads fixed...... every city, state and fed spends so much money on wasteful stuff
Ben on top of the mic in front of the Viper.
Careful Benjamin! Don't want to lose your balance and fall off that mic!
I had damage to a tire rim from incompetent construction in Phoenix. They put probably a 6 inch deep trench across the entire road, didn't properly mark it in a fashion that could be seen during heavy traffic or provide enough warning; if you were in the center lane, as I was, you'd never see the warning. I hit that thing going around 40 mph. Scraped off enough from my front tires that you could see the belting (due for replacement anyway, and still held air), and put a dent on one of my rims. Fortunately, the damage was purely cosmetic, but I definitely could have sued the city for that one.
In Virginia, I got them to repair a pothole in a left turn lane. They didn't want to repair it because they were going to resurface the road in a month or two anyway, but after I complained a second time and stated in my complaint that it was deep enough to damage a truck or SUV they decided to fix it. In that state you CAN make claims for pothole damage.
There is a photo somewhere of a small birthday cake with 2 candles next to a pothole. The neighbors were “celebrating” the pothole becoming 2 years old.
🤣😂👏👏👏👏
I believe that in Quincy Massachusetts there's a road called Furnace Brook, and a section of it is so covered with leaves in the fall, that it's even dangerous to drive when it's wet! I just noticed this past fall that the town raking up the leaves in this section. I'm wondering if anything like this has something to do with it.
Watching Not Just Bikes channel made me realize streets are impossible to keep up to date without bankrupting the city. Guess Ann Arbor is now experiencing this every time roads need to be repaved or repaired.
If a government can't manage to have acceptable streets and other infrastructure then they are totally useless. The real question is where did all the money that DIDN'T fix the roads etc go?
Bureaucracies in general are exceedingly great at wasting money.
Blew out a tire and bent a rim about a month ago in a hole in the road... Curious I looked to see if compensation was possible... Turns out it is 'possible' but rest assured the effort required exceeds the benefits.
I have a problem with the statement by the guy that that's a rich area and they should be taking care of the streets better. So by his statement then poor neighborhoods should not get as much attention.
Just noticed the Falling Down license plate in the background
With that comment about not needing sidewalks, I'd recommend checking out the TH-cam channel of Not Just Bikes. Specifically the series on Strong Towns.
I hit a storm grate on my bicycle one of the ones that goes with traffic threw my off my bicycle at 18mph. Went to urgent care with messed up hands. Didn’t think to sue because I’m not money hungry and I had only superficial injuries. I mention it to a guy in my cycling group who works for the Maryland DOT along with pictures of my hands and face. It was fixed super fast fastest I’ve ever seen the DOT work on getting something done.
I don't remember where it was, but I remember a story where a man who couldn't get potholes filled, started planting flowers in them. I suppose it at least made them more visible and pointed out the delays.
I'm always amused when a city gets completely bent out of shape when local residents take it upon themselves to fix large potholes the city has ignored for an extensive period of time (months to years). It's as if the patch is more dangerous than a hole in the road that you could lose a VW bug in.
It should never be hard to sue those that provide a public service when any losses occur. If it's private property that's a whole different story! Private property is not open to the public! Anytime a person enters private property it's on the person that enters!
I worked with a guy who threatened to sure the city because they didn't shovel the corner where the sidewalk was. He said he slipped on the ice and fell. My theory is, he slipped on the Molson's Ice
Laying flat On top of the microphone behind your right shoulder.
It is basically leaving a "Man Trap" for unsuspecting persons. Whether its in the woods or on the footpath, it's still a "Man Trap" left out for some unsuspecting pedestrian.
Reminds me of a huge pothole in butte Mt it was huge maybe 6’ around and 2+’ deep most people would see it and move over to avoid hitting it. The cops sitting near there would then issue a ticket for crossing the double yellow line.
I was walking near a crosswalk and didn’t notice a 6 inch gap between two steel road plates. My whole leg went through and hit a pipe. Still can’t walk without pain 3 years later. Didn’t occur to me to sue. Probably too late now.
still can institute the claim, there is robably still is time left on the statute to claim for it.
@@SeanBZA I just looked. Seems the statute of limitations in NJ is 2 years. And it’s even worse for me bc if you’re suing a NJ government entity, there’s a 90 day deadline. Oh well, it really doesn’t matter that much. A lawsuit couldn’t bring back the one thing I really want, which is to walk normally again. And to be able to go on a run. I ran 8 marathons before this happened. Now I can’t run more than a few blocks.
so these highly intelligent are unable to think there may be a hole in the road under the leaves all the while knowing potholes in the city streets are prevalent ?
I don't feel safe even walking on leaves, let alone running or jogging on them.
Asphalt is a poor but cheap repair for potholes that only seems to exacerbate the growth of the original pothole. That is if the city doesn't frequently re‐tar the roadway. Maybe the city should look into roads that can percolate water through them leaving it less likely to freeze causing expansion /contraction causing potholes. Also if you put the right things into the mixture could repurpose some of the unreachable trash like Styrofoam, cigarette butts and ground-up tires.
As someone who works for a municipality in another state, yes, if the city is aware of the issue, then we could be liable. I say could because we do allow encroachments into the city right of way and those encroachments have to have insurance that indemnifies the city.
As a rant against my political leaders, it is my understanding that typically maintenance needs to be funded at ~10% of the value of the assets (bridges, roads, etc.) to keep up and higher to actually upgrade/repair. Normally, maintenance is funded at 0-1%...as maintenance is general fund (paid directly by city via taxes) verses capital expenditure (paid by bonds/debt).
edit: spelling
Go to Germany and see what roads can look like when people pay taxes.
Yeah traveling from Ann arbor to yipsilanti is like crossing railroad tracks as soon as you cross the cityline you go from a rich neighborhood to sloansville literally
Slumsville
If he visited an ER for treatment of his injury,15K might not have covered it.
ben on top of mike 2nd from left
In the case of the leaves , the person that wants the trees should clean up the leaves or get someone else to do it for them either voluntarily or for pay
No, you rake the leaves on your property like a normal person. Regardless of where the leaves came from.
@@orppranator5230 when it comes to another persons mess its only if it's your job and you're paid to do so. At least we know where to dump our extra leaves now 🤣😂🤣👍🤟👌. On your property due to the fact you'll clean it up like you claim a normal person should
Highlighted reply
Orppranator
said
7 hours ago (edited)
No, you rake the leaves on your property like a normal person. Regardless of where the leaves came from.
I’ll be back, going to try something 😂
In Iowa, a special law was passed that says if a bicyclist is injured as a result of a pot hole, the one responsible for the maintenance of the road is not liable for any damages. This occurred a few years back when a biker died after the poor road condition caused the bike to suddenly stop and he flew off and became injured from the crash.
So, rather than make the road safe enough that people don't die, they created a law to protect themselves from ramifications? That's utterly despicable.
Wow, a monopoly on Monopoly.
When I was running for City Council I’m a small town the city couldn’t afford to maintain their existing sidewalks but got a grant for installing new sidewalks. So they built more sidewalks which, in the long term will just exasperate the problem.
Not to mention many of the new “sidewalks” were ADA compliant corners but with no connecting sidewalk. AND the ADA compliant corners caused people in wheel chairs and powered chairs to flip face first onto the high crowned roads of the city and several in whee chairs were up in arms.
To solve the many sidewalk issues the city went around and issued code enforcement tickets on every house with a bad sidewalk giving them 30 days to repair of the city would do the work and bill them. Non payment would mean a Leon on the property.
Some savvy citizens did some research and found in the old documents that at some point in the distant past the city had put a referendum in the ballot that homeowners would all grant (by its passage) that area 1 Ft inside the sidewalk to the middle of the road to the city in exchange for the city adjusting their property size and thus taxes.
It past and they did it.
So the city owned all those bad sidewalks and it was standing room only when that little factoid was presented to the city council and they all had the same question. “So in 30 days all the sidewalks will be fixed…..RIGHT?”
Unrepaired potholes can and will eventually grow large and deep enough to destroy a perfectly good suspension on any vehicle... In 2023, one would think this could be eliminated althoether!
I’d believe Ann Arbor roads are up to forty percent crap. Michigan it’s self has some very bumpy roads.
He didn't ask for enough!! "Al Sharpton’s daughter gets $95K settlement for sprained ankle", even though she was shown climbing a mountain after the "so-called" sprain occurred.
Yah , figures .
🎉maybe he should've had a better lawyer. We see your racism, 😬 you bum.
Well that’s that privilege they keep talking about….
@@Wrangzilla based
I wish is was easier. I had to replace 3 tire rims (no just standard rims) because of a road that was in such disrepair, and had no street lights, but I had to drive on the city never got around to actually doing anything real about it.
It took three news reports and 5 years before they finally fixed that road.
I know a woman who broke her ankle on 'uneven' sidewalk and was awarded about $20k in Australia. This was about 20 years ago though.
The transcripts of the San Francisco Government Audit & Oversight Committee, record settlements on nearly every session, of payments for trip & fall injuries from sidewalks & potholes. $15,000 to $22,000 being the norm.
I know sometimes we can't afford to get all the potholes. But our DEI administrator makes $140k/yr. I guess it's a matter of priority as much as anything.
How is AA supposed to keep their streets repaired when there's no money in the State budget for fixing the roads? I mean, it's not like Michigan has a $9.2 Billion budget surplus or anything....
All those college educated people and they can't even take a neighborhood walk without risking personal injury. Who are they voting for, and why. LOL
Crumbling roads, and other infrastructure? Sounds like Michigan.
Where I live they street sweep in the fall.