"Reporting Potholes to 311 or online

Following Richard R’s lead, I decided to report the pothole-filled street that we all frequent on 177th btwn Pinehurst AVENUE and Ft. Washington AVENUE, on the way to the GWB bke path.

You, too, can help the club and cyclists everywhere by reporting potholes either by calling 311 or by reporting street defects via the Pothole Online form (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/motorist/potholeform.html). Who knows, maybe we will be patting ourselves on the back when the repairs are made sometime this summer!



Just a few notes to help ease your way through the call or form:

a) If you call 311 to ask for ""resurfacing"" of a street, 311 will take your information and then forward you to the DOT pothole people, who will take your information too. The 311 people say you need to speak with both departments, else your request may not be processed at all. Please remember to be patient and kind to them. They couldn’t explain why both conversations are needed either. They just work the customer service phones, they don’t make the rules.

b) The 311 people will request your full name & address. In my perspective, any serious sounding name and address should do (Personally, I don’t want to take the chance at getting junk mail).

c) Both services will ask you to be specific about the name of the main street with the defect (eg., it is Pinehurst AVENUE, *not* Pinehurst Rd, Blvd, St, etc.).

d) The DOT pothole people will ask you to specify the number of potholes on the street. When I said the entire street had potholes, they said they would forward me back to the resurfacing people, instead of taking my info. Please be humble, and just give a number – e.g., mentioning somewhere between 5 and 7 potholes should still get your information processed.

e) Both services will give you a service number associated with your call/request. In the past I have used these numbers to follow-up on my calls - at that point, 311 usually has some comment about how my report/request was handled.

f) You can save yourself some talk time by submitting the street defects via the pothole online form. Note that you won’t have to give your street address online, but there an email address is required. Note that you will need to describe the shape, dimensions, depth, and exact location of the hole – a quick, simple guess will do .

*** Please take 3 minutes of your time to do this today. Three minutes now may save you from 5-20 minutes of tire changing on a beautiful riding day. Then, one day we will have happy, flat-free tires, as we escape the city.

*And just for fun, check out these pothole photos and descriptions.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/motorist/potholephotos.html

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