Most Tucson potholes don't measure up to this thing in NYC/Ryn Gargulinski
Clueless drivers, mounds of construction and chunks of palm tree bark in the street aren’t the only roadway hazards in Tucson.
Don’t forget the potholes.
These treacherous driving distractions invite flat tires, scraped-up car bellies and random swerving motions that are apt to make us run over a cat.
Fret no longer, fellow motorists – the Tucson Pothole Patrol is coming back to town.
Originally here in October, The Hartford Pothole Patrol is returning for a week-long pothole-fixing party starting June 7.
The party, a partnership of The Hartford insurance company with the City, will start by fixing Tucson’s worst pothole, as determined by votes, along with a few others.
Vote for your least favorite pothole by June 4 at Potholepatrol.thehartford.com/city_tucson.shtml
The prize is, of course, having that pothole fixed.
You can vote for those already listed – like ones on Mars Street, Scott Avenue and Toole Avenue – or nominate a different one that made you hit a cat.
Another fine NYC example/Ryn Gargulinski
Voting for Tucson’s worst pothole brought up other unsavory road conditions around town.
Like the most useless red light prize.
My vote for this one goes to the one at South Park Avenue and East Fair Street.
It boldly disrupts the heavy Park Avenue traffic flow no matter what – even when there’s nobody on Fair. It’s just not fair.
OK, I’ll admit it – sometimes there is a single car on Fair.
The most-clogged intersection award goes to East Grant Road and North Alvernon Way.
Average wait, at least during rush hour, is at least seven red light cycles. Traffic is not helped along by heavy pedestrian crossings from people going from Wal-Mart to Walgreens to the gas station and Moon Smoke Shop to Fry’s and back to Wal-Mart.
Yes, it’s easy to memorize all four corner businesses when you’re stuck for seven cycles at a red light.
Most annoying traffic camera honor has to be given to one on River Road. While I’ve heard horror stories of the traffic camera at the intersection of River and North Oracle Road, I’m still voting for the one on River a bit west of Alvernon.
Drivers are already getting kooky in that area because eastbound River is about to branch into weird directions, and putting a speed camera into the mix only confuses them further. The camera turns the 40-mph speed limit instantly and seamlessly into a 25-mph zone.
Maybe we should redirect cats lurking around potholes into this newly formed low-speed zone.
[tnipoll]
What do you think?
Do you have any pothole horror stories?
Did one ever eat you alive?
Where is your least favorite pothole?
Most useless red light?
Most clogged intersection?
Most annoying traffic camera?
Share the horror.
In my neck of the woods, the worst area was on 29th Street from Wilmont to Craycroft, but they’ve been working on that, so hopefully it will be better. That w’hole’ area was like one constant pothole.
nice pun on w’hole’!
glad the pothole stretch is getting cleared up near you. there is/was a horrible pothole at the stop sign near my house which has been fixed (for the second time) – but we know some underground pipes leak in the area and i’m sure it will come back again soon.
if the underground pipes leak under a particular property, the HOA said its up to the homeowners to pay for repairs, even if the pipe installation was none of their doing.
so the pothole saga continues….
Leaky pipe equals a waste of water and, if it’s someone’s property, I’d think an awful water bill every month. Seems so worth while to get it fixed for a lower bill and no more holes!
I had a pipe burst under my house last summer and I never knew! The water guy came to my house and told me my meter was spinning outta control. I was freaked out and he shut my water off so it wouldn’t keep going. Paid a fortune to get it fixed, then got a $1,200.00 water bill. I was sick about it, but the water company was great. I found out that if you’re a homeowner and you have a leak like that, the water company will give yu a pass on it. I explained I had just paid a bunch to get the problem fixed, so could I make payments on the bill. They said I didn’t have to pay the bill. But, a homeowner can only do that once in a three year period. I was shocked but so grateful for that!
egads! what a nightmare.
so cool the water co let you out of the payment, but i still think it’s crummy the home owner has to be the one to pay for the pipe bursting/leaking.
also, the three year period? guess it’s better than a no-year period for getting out of a huge bill that’s not your fault.
$1,200 water bill is a heck of a lot of water!
I felt rather stupid that I didn’t realize it had been leaking, but it was a pipe dead center under the middle of my house. I didn’t see any wet areas on my property or anything.
It’s a sticky thing…my house was built in the mid-seventies, so couldn’t blame the builder nearly forty years later. I looked into a CAP water thingy where some pipes had rotted out faster than normal so there were some funds put aside for that, but that was futile. Looked into using homeowners insurance, but that would have raised my rate and probably made it impossible if I ever wanted to go with another insurance company. I looked into so many options!
don’t feel stupid at all – how the heck would anyone know?
are we supposed to periodically dig beneath our floorboards just in case something is going wrong in the depths of the earth? hahahah.
yeah, claiming it for homeowner insurance is another big question – sounds like you def. did your homework and made best decision.
maybe you could have just moved really quick – hahahah – KIDDING!
Manville Road is one large pothole, so big that they are putting dirt on both sides of the road as we speak, and not addressing the potholes that are out there. I chip my teeth when I drive on Manville, and the 10 ply tires don’t help either. “Impact Squashy” i.t.c.
dear impact squashy,
yuck! i’ll know to avoid manville. i’ll be it also wreaks havoc on your CD collection if you listen while driving.
what is the purpose of the dirt on the side of a pot-holed road? cushion drivers when they are flung off the street?
The worst pothole is ANY pothole. I end up driving through it the first time and have a virtual heart attack. I take a look for damage after I get to a safe location. After I know where the pothole is, I learn to avoid it.
What really gets me is how badly timed every single stoplight in Tucson is. Lights should turn green as you approach, not red and, if no one is at the light for ten seconds in the other direction with no one in sight and I’m just sitting there, change the light to my direction. Apparently, this isn’t that hard to do since all the other cities I’ve been in seem to do both just fine. This is the #1 complaint I hear over and over about driving in Tucson.
hey thomas!
yes, i, too, end up not seeing potholes the first time around and get sucked into their depths. i’m also good at missing speed bumps. i try not to look under my car for damage as i figure what i don’t know won’t hurt me – haha.
heck yes!! on your proposal to make stop lights effective. that one at park/fair is a killer – and i also run into several around dodge. it DOES seem so many turn red as gobs of traffic approach. maybe someone has a switch backwards somewhere?
There are SO many speed bumps in Tucson.
Possibly correlated: There are SO many pickup trucks in Tucson.
I laugh every time I see a car that seems to only be two or three inches off the ground and think to myself, “That poor guy is going to be very unhappy when he totals that shiny car on the first speed bump he encounters around these parts.”
The people I’ve talked to have told me that it is relatively “cheap” to raise a car a couple inches. Which would afford plenty of space for those speed bumps for most cars. Three inches off the ground guy would still crash though. 🙂
i wonder about those low-riders, too – and i’m going to outfit my RYNmobile with those 500-foot tires so i don’t have to worry – hahahhaha.
Isn’t this cute. Now we have contests to figure out why we are so screwed up as a town. And letting Hartford do some road repairs is insulting to say the least. Almost like “enabling” to a drug addict.
Cops, fire, road repair and road safety are our top priority. Anything else –get in line. Sorry but I wont enter this contest. Somebody write a story about why we dont have the money to fix them in the first place.
Have a sweet ride on your 160 million dollar Trolley ride.
hhahahahahhahah! enjoy your point of view, thomas d.
Hi Rynski! On a motorcycle the potholes are pretty easy to dodge; it’s those huge cracks that make the road look like an ugly jigsaw puzzle that jar my giblets. Just the opposite in my truck.
Side note: radmiss ‘screams in terror’ while crossing a speed bump at 5 mph, so I am very watchful for the numerous plates and craters in the ever evolving(devolving?) little Beirut that is our fair city’s roadway system.
‘groomed Nixon?’…(ugh!) 🙂
radmiss….HAHAHAHAAA!!
Cute nickname
hey radmax!
good you see the potholes on the cycle before they see you – but sorry to hear about the jarred giblets. even if you must ride over the cracks, please do not step on them or bad things will happen.
i’m with azmouse – radmiss is the ULTIMATE moniker! hahahah. and please tell her i can totally relate to those horrible speed bumps – geesh – those are my giblet jarrers, for sure!
Mski,
My friend and watch cat was alerting me this morning of nuisances. Just wondering if you found your old vodoo dolls or got a new for your birthday?