Pothole Hell

Anyone who drives or bikes or even walks down Broadway leading to the Williamsburg Bridge is aware of the horrendous condition of this street. Potholes and fissures abound - and as we don't have a car - our experience with Broadway has been mostly by bike and by foot. As if biking down this street wasn't already a deathwish - with the deafening noise from the trains overhead and speeding cars who don't believe in sharing this extremely narrow stretch of asphalt with anything so lowly as a non-toxic two wheeler. I've only biked on Broadway a handful of times but there were many moments during those rides that I had to swerve to avoid a pothole and nearly got swiped by an SUV. And just try navigating across this street by foot or with a stroller - I'm surprised more people don't trip in a pothole and get struck down by an impatient vehicle. While it never ceases to amaze me that the intersection next to Woodhull hospital, in addition to being one of the most cracked and pothole ridden parts of Broadway, doesn't even have a wheelchair ramp at the crosswalk. A few years ago, one of our previous roommates actually had a bike accident in front of the hospital. Which, of course, if you're going to have an accident is not a bad place to be.

According to the NY Post, in January of this year, Bloomberg acknowledged that Brooklyn has the "largest number of reported potholes of any borough," and had a photo op in Sheepshead Bay to start off their "their annual pothole filling campaign." I guess he forgot about Broadway though. He claims that in 2002 potholes were filled within a month of being reported but a NYC Comptroller's report from the same year says it took an average of 73 days for them to fill a pothole in Brooklyn. In 2009, Bloomberg says that if you see a pothole, you're supposed to call 311, and that they'll fill them within three days. Really? Yeah right. And Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are real too. We've called 311 about the trash in our playgrounds and about getting trash cans put on the corners of our trash strew neighbourhood - but so far, nothing.

The NY Daily News reported in May this year, that "potholes on two Belt Parkway bridges are so bad they slow traffic to a standstill and cause frequent flat tires." Potholes are so prevalent in New York that there's even attorneys who specialize in 'pothole accidents.' In the meantime, we'll continue biking the long way around. What's an extra 15 minutes travel time compared to instant death by pothole?

Incidentally, in non pothole related news, in 2005, an article in the NY Daily News said that the intersection of Broadway and Myrtle where we take the train everyday, a woman was "mowed down" by a dump truck and killed. This was the first death at this intersection even though Transportation Alternatives reported that "45 pedestrians have been struck by vehicles at the intersection since 1996."