Pot holes got you down? Hopefully not literally, but man what a drag having a gaping chasm on a dark and unfamiliar street. I have recently moved to a new house in south east Portland only to find the street out front peppered with pot holes. I avoided them as much as I could, grumbling as I passed each time, but really doing nothing to solve the problem.
It wasn’t until I notice a Shift! post by a fella by the name of Daniel Johnson in which he took it upon himself to outline pot holes with chalk and then inform the city of their where abouts. I contacted Mr Johnson and He gave me this handy URL, which takes you (you do have to create a profile) to a bike route maintenance request form (823-bump works also). I filled out the form on Wednesday, and on the way home from work yesterday (Thursday) I noticed that the pot holes had been filled. Wow! Next day service.
The moral of the story is: the city needs our help as cyclists to identify road hazards and seems to be incredibly prompt about taking action to fix safety issues for cyclists, so give them a shout out.
