A post on Tuesday showed potholes patched by the city in the previous 7 days.
But what about potholes that the city hasn’t filled? That question is more involved. Being non-experts, the best we could do is consult city data on potholes reported to 311.
(Note: the link above is a mess. Click the “visualize” tab, fill out the form, zoom in, cross fingers.)
Each day the Chicago’s 311 line gets hundreds of pothole service requests. For example, this past Tuesday: 306. Monday: 401.
Dating back to January 2009, the 311 hotline has received 463,199 reports of potholes. Let’s take a look at em.
A lot (463,199) of potholes. Non-orange parts of Chicago have no streets–cemeteries, freight yards, airports, parks, big industrial lots.
On a good day, crews can fill several thousand potholes–and CDOT claims it’s filling potholes at a 40% quicker pace than in 2016. Service requests have gone down in the past couple years, too, likely a product of milder winter weather.
That leaves only ~4,500 pothole service requests currently unfilled. Here are some of them:
LOOP:
NORTH SIDE (from north to south):
Whoa, W. Ridge Ave! Don’t ride there anyway–too much traffic.
This stretch of Damen in West Ridge: bad street or nutty resident?
Probably both.
Rest assured, every one of these potholes has been reported.
SOUTH SIDE:
McKinley Park, Bridgeport, Bronzeville: not much to see here.
WEST SIDE:
How useful are these maps? Not very.
There are obviously a zillion potholes in Chicago not represented on the maps above. But these blue dots are the ones that, for whatever reason, prompted people to call 3-1-1. Maybe they’re the worst of the worst, or maybe they’re near crazy people who obsessively call 3-1-1.
So there you have it. Chicago: it has lots of potholes. Watch out for ’em.
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