REPORT EVERY POTHOLE - for the Benefit of All
REPORT EVERY POTHOLE or other dangerous road defect - make a note of it as soon as you encounter it.
It is so important for everyone that dangerous potholes are fixed as soon as possible. Herts Highways are supposed to check for them at six-monthly intervals but of course that is too infrequent - we are in the best position to see these dangers, so let's report them to benefit each other.
It's quick and easy to report on line but the reporting method has changed slightly which makes it seem more difficult.
HOW TO Report on Line - Some TIPS & TRICKS to save effort ...
- First of all, don't bother to find out if the fault has already been reported - this wastes your time.
- Go to THIS PAGE & select fault type (e.g. Pothole in road)
- Proceeds to "Locate" stage. Enter location & click Search. Often after clicking "Search" the location can't be found & you get a dumb response - keep trying! (e.g. For Avenue Road, you need to enter Avenue without Road!!).
- Once the location is found click "Continue without map". Avoid using button "Locate using map" (it takes forever).
- Proceeds to "Detail" stage, where sometimes several locations are presented, click the one which applies.
- The "Fault Description" box lets you enter free text. If in your opinion the fault/pothole is dangerous*, be sure to say 'Dangerous to Cyclists' in this box, along with location information such as house number & other brief details of the fault.
- Also using this free-text box you can report a number of faults of the same type at different locations in the same road - Saves your time.
- In the Name section - note another time-saver - that you do not need to complete your name and address details - just enter your email if you want an acknowledgement.
This is an update of the previous post on pothole reporting HERE where you can still find lots of useful information on reporting by phone or reporting to STACC so we can report to Herts Highways for you.
5 comments:
I hope that everyone reading this will report any pothole they come across before there is another sad accident.
It may encourage people to know that the 40 (yes!) holes I've reported this spring have been attended to within 24 hours.
I report anything I regard as a hazard, whether 20mm deep or 100, commenting that it is a 'hazard to cycles'.
I've been pleasantly surprised and impressed by the service!
The repairs are not necessarily good, but at least something is done.
Pete
A recent 'feature' that has been added to the potholes reporting form is a number of fields where you are invited to add the dimensions etc of the pothole.
I decline to fill in these fields as I think that the info might be used to 'judge' that a pothole is not dangerous (e.g. 'cos it's not deeper than 47mm) so I suggest that others should not waste time filling these in either. (By definition it's also somewhat hazardous to crouch in the road to measure the thing!)
I will edit the main Post to add this soon - meantime this acts as a temporary tip.
I'm not sure. Maybe there is something we can use here to at least help them to identify the worse holes and fix them the most quickly- possibly identifying potholes which need fixing most by estimating depth on the generous side could give them a better chance of faster attention. This is probably a nieve assumption, but there could be a shreadhseet socing system going on to identify hotspots and score them most highly for repair. Fixmy street.com is useful to track faults too.
There's an interesting item from minutes of the HCC Highways and Transport Cabinet Panel of 10/7/08 which can be found
[HERE]
It tells of how potholes will be tackled in future.
Of particular importance - shown in Paras 4.5 & 4.6 - is the hazard classification & repair prioritisation - which HCC sees as a simple formula based on pothole dimensions, and relates to road hierarchy - not to vulnerability of the users.
So if you report the pothole's dimensions it might not be repaired so soon as if you just report it as DANGEROUS TO CYCLISTS.
Likewise, if it is on a B road (which cyclists tend to use).
I think we should campaign to get their 'simple risk assessment process' changed.
Near me HH is about to repair a section of road which is currently running on its third set of patches in this particular section. (This was reported more than a month ago, but hey, who'se counting)
The repair people have come out and appear to have marked up the patches they expect to be repaired. (see this photo From the looks of it this apparently leaves out several holes, and leaves the road surface in an uneven condition over the whole length of repairs. Unless HH repair the whole lot, they'll be needing to come back to fix what they've missed next year. And the year after and...
A similar patch and re-patch happened just up the road- after 4th generation patching crumbled HH finally came out and did the job properly- would've been cheaper if the job had been done right the second time round.
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