Website gives 'hole' picture of roadways

With online social networking having demonstrated its power to foment revolution and topple repressive governments, can we now please get it to do something about potholes?

Well, maybe.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are developing a website where smartphone users can post pictures of potholes, to encourage road crews to fix them or, in the alternative, help drivers steer clear of them.

"People can see at a glance where the most potholes are," said Takeo Kanade, a Carnegie Mellon robotics professor involved in the project. "You get the 'hole' picture of potholes in Pittsburgh."

The system accepts e-mailed photos through a Facebook login and uses the GPS feature in the sender's smartphone to pinpoint the location of the hole. It then goes on the website's map as a red dot. The photo can be viewed by clicking on the dot.

With a second straight harsh winter and the city of Pittsburgh unable to fund an adequate paving program, potholes have been popping out everywhere. The red dots are spreading like a bad case of measles on the map at www.rodasproject.org.

"Everywhere you go in Oakland and Squirrel Hill, it's terrible," said Robert Strauss, professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon who is working on the project along with Veronica Acha, a master's student in public policy, and Edward M. Krokosky, a retired civil engineering professor.

Mr. Strauss said the site has the potential to remake governments' approach to road maintenance, pushing out politics and favoritism by exposing the worst problem spots for all to see.

"The use of this technology can make an enormous difference," he said.

The mechanisms currently in place for citizens to report potholes are government-operated hot lines and websites, he noted. A complaint "goes into a hole and you never hear anything," he said.

When the Rodas Project website is fully operational -- it was still hitting a few technological bumps last week -- the dots and photos will show up in a matter of seconds after the e-mail is sent.

Down the road, Mr. Strauss said, tentative plans call for placement of green dots when a hole has been fixed.

When the system is fully evolved, Mr. Kanade envisions drivers attaching their phones to the windshield or dashboard and continuously recording the road ahead. The phones would be programmed to detect vibrations caused when the car hits a pothole and automatically send a photo.

He said the system also could be programmed to develop the most efficient repair strategies for road crews.

"It should not be viewed [by the city] as negative input. In the long run, it can save the city money," Mr. Kanade said.

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spokesman Jim Struzzi said the system "definitely has potential."

"Any tool that we can utilize to help us determine the locations of potholes and get them quickly repaired is a benefit," he said.

For now, though, "the best way to get a pothole fixed quickly on a state route is to call 1-800-FIX-ROAD (349-7623)," Mr. Struzzi said.

The city's pothole hot line is 311 for residents and 412-255-2621 for nonresidents.

Mr. Struzzi cautioned those who want to contribute pothole photos to the new site to pull over and park first -- he said some of the pictures on the site appear to have been taken by people while they were driving.

The Carnegie Mellon project has similarities to a venture launched by the city in 2009 called iBurgh, which enabled iPhone users to submit photos of potholes and other nuisances to the government. The service currently is inactive, but one of its advocates, Councilman William Peduto, said work is under way to revive it and extend it to users of Android and Blackberry phones.

First published on March 7, 2011 at 12:00 am