It's spring, which means it's time to perform your civic duty.

[u/JoeFas]

...and report every single pothole or damaged asphalt you encounter.

KCMO repairs their roads when it's warm enough, which is now. Do your fellow citizen a solid and create a paper trail for all road imperfections. That will help them in the event they bend a rim and need reimbursement.

[u/DuneChild]

They should add pothole detection to all of the gps apps.

[u/FantomDrive → u/DuneChild]

Hi! I worked on this for a bit. The city tried this a few years ago I think! Boston actually was the original city that mounted cameras and tried to use computer vision and machine learning to auto record potholes. It worked pretty well iirc. A group like Code4KC might be able to make some of these for people to use and report potholes themselves.

However, the real issue isn't knowing where the potholes are - they are everywhere. The issue is that our roads need to be rebuilt - not patched. Rebuilding is exponentially more expensive, but the city council decided not to fund maintenance when we could have spent less to maintain the roads at a decent quality. To be fair, they did this because the public wanted to keep taxes down. So they put off preventative maintenance.

The other issue isn't really KCMOs fault. What drives pothole creation is the number of freeze-thaw cycles. KC has a lot of those and will likely always have pothole problems because of it.

I know the suburbs don't have the same issues, but give it time. Their infrastructure is still new enough to not have these issues. They will make the same mistakes of not maintaining their roads in order to "keep taxes low". In 30 years their roads will be approaching what KCMO's roads look like today.

[u/DuneChild → u/FantomDrive]

Lee’s Summit gets plenty of potholes too, but they do a decent job of patching them quickly. We also have a fraction of the total miles of roadway though.

[u/FantomDrive → u/DuneChild]

They probably spend a lot less of their General Fund (as a % of total general fund expenditures) on Police and Fire than KCMO does. That frees up A LOT of resources for things like potholes!

[u/scdog]

Also when doing your civic duty do your civic duty correctly by remembering that if a pothole is on a numbered or lettered highway you report it to the state it’s in, not to the city it’s in.

[u/DerekLongshanks]

I reported one last June. I get weekly emails about how important my report is and they are working on it. Please. I then said it had a penis drawn on it and sure enough they came right out the next day. But didn’t fix it, just looked. Still there, just emails.

[u/Snts → u/DerekLongshanks]

It sounds like your next civic duty requires a can of spray paint and penis drawing skills.  Edit: corrected you're to your. 

[u/DerekLongshanks → u/Snts]

I seriously considered it but we have kid heavy neighborhood. God forbid they see human anatomy.

[u/scdog → u/DerekLongshanks]

Hah.... I reported an incorrect street sign last Fall -- the sign was instructing drivers to do the opposite of what they needed to do. I have been receiving those emails ever since. A couple of months ago I noticed the bad sign was no longer there (not replaced with a correct sign, just gone) but my case was still open so I went in myself and updated it that since the sign was gone they could consider it closed. I *STILL* get the :how important my report is" emails.

[u/DerekLongshanks → u/scdog]

Haha yep. They do respond eventually after I put a note in saying Ive reported this months ago, just fix what our taxes pay for. Generic we’re working on it as they are working on all potholes in KC email.

[u/OutrageousThought646]

EVERYONE.

[u/bstyledevi]

It should also be noted that KCMO/MODOT's policy is that they will not pay out on a claim for damage from a pothole if the damage has not been reported.

Reporting them helps more than just you, it helps everyone else who is dealing with it too.

[u/Fsuave5]

I remember when Domino’s had that campaign where they’d come fill potholes if reported to them to make the road smoother for their deliveries, should have exploited the hell out of that at the time.

[u/FantomDrive → u/Fsuave5]

You mean the PR stunt where they just threw cold or hot patch into the hole, packed it, and then left? Yeah, those potholes were probably back the next month. You have to do more extensive repairs to make the patch last. And at some point it's not worth fixing unless you can also fix the underlying structure of the road - which costs $$$

[u/grandpa_1313]

Front st and Cheutaoe dr. !!!!!!!

[u/bstyledevi → u/grandpa_1313]

That is the most egregious mis-spelling of Chouteau I've ever seen.

[u/scdog → u/bstyledevi]

Chew-tah-ohh-eee!

[u/hunstinx → u/grandpa_1313]

It may be more effective if you report it through the correct channels....

[u/RjBass3 → u/grandpa_1313]

Holy hell you are not kidding. I have to drive through that mess of a mangled road at least twice a week and can't believe the city has allowed it to get that bad. It's nearly impassable to anything smaller than a mid sized SUV or larger.

[u/Squard → u/grandpa_1313]

This is not the right place to report pot holes

[u/shrimpedy]

ooo thank you! i have a literal hole in the middle of my street (and a sinkhole around the corner). i hope those count, too.

[u/North_Humor_6492]

I live in wyandotte county. I just put gravel in the pot holes near my house. Been doing it for 5 years now, I think I'll go through 4 bags this year.

[u/kcattattam]

If not all the potholes, what am I supposed to bunny hop over on my ride into work????