Levinson and Stefani

As a way to curb the number of accidents and amount of damage done to vehicles before the winter season arrives, Chicago Mayor, Lori Lightfoot, and the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) have announced they will be conducting “Blitz Days” each Saturday between the months of September and October. The Blitz Days serve as an attempt to get road crews out and on the streets before the weather gets too harsh. In the meantime, the city is asking that motorists drive slow around crews to ensure both pedestrian and driver safety.

This certainly isn’t the first time we have heard of the city conducting work such as this. In a city the size of Chicago and with a harsh winter quickly approaching and ready to tear the roads apart, it’s an absolute necessity to ensure road safety. The city already announced in a press release on September 6^th that “this year to data, CDOT has filled nearly 527,000 potholes throughout the city’s 50 wards.” When taking this large number into consideration, its worth the reminder that Chicago was also previously ranked third in the nation in terms of total number of hours spent in traffic, resulting in roughly $1,300 wasted annually per commuter. Cited by the 2019 Urban Mobility Report from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, the Institute found a multitude of factors to play a critical role in wasted dollars and increased traffic, but its safe to say that issues such as road infrastructure were the largest factor. While 527,000 potholes seem like a lot, looking to the city’s history with infrastructure issues paints an entirely different picture. Granted, the winter months wreak havoc on roads and roadwork is impossible to complete when its snowing and below freezing outside; however, these are necessary issues that must be taken care of to maintain road safety.

In discussing these Blitz Days, acting CDOT Commissioner, Tom Carney, stated “we anticipate having about 30 pothole patching crews assigned to wards throughout the city. With this additional help, we estimate that we will be able to fill more than 5,000 potholes on each of these days.” If the city is able to follow through on this promise, these would be a major boost for local residents already dreading the morning and evening commutes. While traffic alone is bad, being forced to sit in traffic due to issues such as potholes is far worse. Ultimately, the hope is that the city is able to properly address the infrastructure issues and ensure driver safety in the process of doing so.

Just How Dangerous are Potholes?

In a city like Chicago, the cold weather presents an annual challenge for the city in that it causes roads to crumble and crack at a much quicker rate. Potholes have the ability to form overnight and when adding the daily wear and tear of Chicago commutes, the issue can become dangerous very quickly. Although many people may think that potholes, due to their often-small size, don’t pose a major safety risk, the opposite is true. They may not often be the cause of an accident, but the reality is that they are a contributing factor to damaging your vehicle, that places you and other drivers at a severe risk and financial detriment.

A few years back, Digital Trends wrote a great article that went to great lengths to establish why potholes remain such a large issue in the United States and the dangers they pose. In the piece, Digital Trends had the opportunity to speak with an Area Manager for Bridgestone, Abilio Toledo, who acknowledged that while potholes present serious risks, the issue is that we often cannot see the full damage they do to our vehicles. For example, if we damage our tires due to driving through a pothole, one of the warning signs is a bulge in the side wall of our tire; however, this often isn’t the case. Toledo went on to say, “‘the tire will snap the inner lining. It still holds air but there’s a bubble. If it doesn’t blow out, the tire is still compromised and can blow out at any moment. So, you think you made it through the pothole and you’re okay, but you didn’t.’” When this occurs, the results can often affect fuel efficiency, the tread of your tires, and the overall alignment of the vehicle. What all of this says is that the damage may not be present at all after you hit a pothole but when your vehicle’s suspension and tire tread can all be affected in the long term, then we must start thinking about how this could place others in danger on the road at a later time. All it takes is an individual’s car pulling to the left a little too much for a car in the adjacent lane to be pushed off the road. These factors all play a role in how accidents occur.

Keeping an Eye Out

In a city like Chicago, the cold weather presents an annual challenge for the city in that it causes roads to crumble and crack at a much quicker rate. Potholes have the ability to form overnight and when adding the daily wear and tear of Chicago commutes, the issue can become dangerous very quickly. Although many people may think that potholes, due to their often-small size, don’t pose a major safety risk, the opposite is true. They may not often be the cause of an accident, but the reality is that they are a contributing factor to damaging your vehicle, that places you and other drivers at a severe risk and financial detriment.

A few years back, Digital Trends wrote a great article that went to great lengths to establish why potholes remain such a large issue in the United States and the dangers they pose. In the piece, Digital Trends had the opportunity to speak with an Area Manager for Bridgestone, Abilio Toledo, who acknowledged that while potholes present serious risks, the issue is that we often cannot see the full damage they do to our vehicles. For example, if we damage our tires due to driving through a pothole, one of the warning signs is a bulge in the side wall of our tire; however, this often isn’t the case. Toledo went on to say, “‘the tire will snap the inner lining. It still holds air but there’s a bubble. If it doesn’t blow out, the tire is still compromised and can blow out at any moment. So, you think you made it through the pothole and you’re okay, but you didn’t.’” When this occurs, the results can often affect fuel efficiency, the tread of your tires, and the overall alignment of the vehicle. What all of this says is that the damage may not be present at all after you hit a pothole but when your vehicle’s suspension and tire tread can all be affected in the long term, then we must start thinking about how this could place others in danger on the road at a later time. All it takes is an individual’s car pulling to the left a little too much for a car in the adjacent lane to be pushed off the road. These factors all play a role in how accidents occur.