# Potholes In Your City **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 3, 2012, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potholes-in-your-city/608241 "2012-01-03T07:16:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BeaMyra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@BeaMyra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeaMyra)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potholes-in-your-city/608241/1 "2012-01-03T07:16:15Z")
I heard on the news that in 2011, Chicago patched over 600,000 potholes. I live in the city and rarely drive my care as the bus is easier and the subway is close. I never really noticed. Seems like a lot of potholes. Are they new potholes, or are the same ones they are patching, just losing the patching? What about your city? What are the potholes like there? ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potholes-in-your-city/608241/2 "2012-01-03T14:51:07Z")
In Ottawa I once saw a pothole swallow a car. Not completely but well enough that they needed a towtruck to rescue it. In Toronto they’re frequent but seem to be a manageable size until a watermain breaks but I don’t think those count as potholes. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potholes-in-your-city/608241/3 "2012-01-03T16:37:27Z")
The potholes in NE Ohio aren’t too bad - I’ve rarely seen one as big as OMG-it’s-gonna-swallow-my-car. But the road quality overall is just a disgrace around here - lots of small potholes, and patches on top of patches on top of patches. There are a lot of major thoroughfares that need to be scraped down to bedrock and freshly repaved, but it hardly ever happens. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potholes-in-your-city/608241/4 "2012-01-03T17:49:36Z")
Winters are very hard on roads - every spring, a fresh crop of potholes and crappy stretches of road crops up here. There is one particular place on a major road (John Laurie Blvd. by Charleswood Drive for any Calgarians reading) that does this accordion stretch thing every winter and summer - although the speed limit is 70 kph and people routinely do well over that, everyone slows down to a crawl when that space humps up every spring. They’ve worked on this stretch at least once that I know of, but they can’t seem to fix it. I guess it’s a bit of a natural traffic control device. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potholes-in-your-city/608241/5 "2012-01-03T17:59:05Z")
Washington, DC is much better at repairing potholes than it used to be. I remember a pothole in the early 90s into which someon had thrown a mattress and it still didn’t fill the entire hole.