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Top 5 Ways Citizens Celebrate Pothole Season

The snow is melting, birds are chirping, windows are open, and flowers are blooming: it's officially pothole season. Like clockwork, millions of these tiny craters pop up across the country as residents gear up to hit the open road and celebrate spring.

Your tax payers want those potholes fixed badly, and for good reason. An AAA survey found that potholes cost U.S. drivers $15 billion in car repairs over a 5-year period, which probably has something to do with why two-thirds of drivers are concerned about potholes on local roadways.

If you're smart, and using a community-driven communication tool like SeeClickFix, residents can report potholes by using their smartphone or computer. Those requests are instantly routed into your work and asset management system, your crews patch the roadway and enter their resources on the go, and that resident receives real-time updates on the status of their request. It's a win-win-win. 

If you're not one of the lucky ones, what happens when those potholes aren't taken care of quick enough? Well, citizens get creative. From yarn bombing to using them as a giant cereal bowl, check out these top 5 ways residents took to the streets to address their local government's pothole problems.

5. CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, LA

Big Easy residents paid tribute to their French roots, filling potholes with Mardi Gras beads. Potholes are such a problem for the community, that a local new station features a "Pothole of the Day," five times a week. 

4. NEW YORK CITY, NY

After professional prankster Coby Persin popped his tire driving over a pothole, he posed the question, "As New Yorkers, how can we avoid these potholes? Because the city doesn't clean them up until summer." His answer: filling them with plants.

3. PARIS, FRANCE

To draw attention to the potholes in her city, Juliana Santacruz Herrera opted to go the whimsical route. Using a rainbow of colors, she's "yarn bombing" cracks and crevices in her community, turning the crumbling concrete into glorious pieces of art.

2. CITY OF PORTLAND, OR

These residents are so fed up, they've taken to the streets—and social media—to fix the potholes themselves. According to Portland Anarchist Road Repair, they're taking "the state roads of PDX into the hands of the people. State neglect has caused the streets to fall into disrepair. We will fix the streets."

1. CITY OF TRENTON, MI

After spotting a particularly large pothole, this brave young man decided to make the best of it, and turn it into something magically delicious. Yes, he actually ate Lucky Charms out of a pothole, and it took an entire gallon of milk to fill it in.

pic.twitter.com/rRdioq8rSt

— Andrew (@TheAndrewConda) March 12, 2018

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