Pothole of the week

With the Bottleneck Blog now securely under my benevolent dictatorship, I'm pleased to award the first Pothole of the Week award to Will Campbell, a cyclist from Silver Lake, for this mess on Sepulveda Boulevard in Culver City.

Mr. Campbell's description, via e-mail:

"For my first exhibit I present to you the 20-foot length of undulating devastation that can be found on the southbound side of Sepulveda Boulevard immediately out from under the Marina Freeway overpass. Fox Hills Mall is across the street on the left and there's a Sizzler on the right...

"At first glance at the attached photo, the roadway condition might not look all that bad, and in fact the previously existing and frighteningly deep cavities have been filled (and perhaps the gravel even tamped down) in a short-term quick-fix attempt to level this slaying field, so to speak. Indeed, it's better than it was, but I'm here to tell you, this monster is still the bane of my biking existence that I dare not pedal over."

I have referred Mr. Campbell to the Culver City public works department, and we'll be watching to see how they respond.

My plan is to have a pothole of the week each week, so email me your nominees along with a half-decent photo and some lovingly crafted words.

For more on this week's winner, turn the page...

Mr. Campbell continues:

"Should I be lucky enough to have the lane clear of vehicles behind me when I approach it I'll move to the left and pass by with a wary eye. But more often than not I'm encroached upon by cars and thus forced into the gutter like the alt-commute dog they think I am. While the gutter appears clean in the image, it becomes increasingly littered with countless asphalt bits and chunks dislodged from the patchwork by the vehicles that pass over the carnage, their drivers and passengers probably barely feeling anything. Lucky them.

"It would be a dream come true if the appropriate and duly authorized organization would quit applying the useless paving equivalent of Band-Aids and fix this stretch once and for all so that I could roll over it in peace and confidence on my way to my Westchester destination. But I'm just a cyclist after all so I don't dare dream too big. Thus until or if that day ever comes I'll continue to exercise caution and evasion in going around it."

--Steve Hymon

Photo: Will Campbell

Comments

[Dana Gabbard]

For potholes in the city of Los Angeles a report to the Bureau of Street Services ususally gets them filled within a day or two. And given the current budget crunch mass repaving is a remote possibility, at best.

Instructions for how to report them can be found via this link:
http://www.lacity.org/BOSS/Administration/service.htm

I have posted a page on the SO.CA.TA website on pavement issues that some may find informative: http://www.socata.net/gm/archives/00000026.shtml