**The Pothole Problem: A National Crisis**

In this day and age, dealing with potholes is a daily reality for many of us. We all hate them. (splash sound) - (laughter) Watch out for that first step; it's a doozy. The city of Chicago has filled over 108,000 potholes this year alone. That's almost 30,000 a month, nearly 1,000 a day. Guys, that's a whole lot of potholes. (instrumental music)

On average, a little over 3 million drivers in the US suffer pothole-related damage every year. This can be anything from popping a tire to bending a rim or blowing out a shock absorber. The financial burden is significant, with billions of dollars spent on repairs each year.

Repairing potholes is a huge way local governments can build goodwill with their constituents. Not just because the roads get better, but it turns out road conditions have a measurable effect and the chances of winning re-election. Within six months of San Diego's mayoral election, every five pothole complaints lowered the mayor's approval rating by one point.

Hurricane Harvey caused an outbreak of potholes in the Houston area. Mayor Turner has made road repair a centerpiece of his term. The mayor changed city policies so that any user-reported pothole via the 311 service would be filled by the next business day. Mayor Turner's city work has filled nearly 10,000 potholes this year and over 60,000 last year.

Making potholes a priority helped recovery not only by creating jobs and repairing streets but also by reducing obstacles to trade, improving the ability of people to get new jobs, and allowing unencumbered shipments of goods and services on newly restored roads. Houston employs over 80 people for their pothole strike team, and they can fill over 300 potholes in a day.

Today, Houston's economy is experiencing a dramatic upswing. All told, before the initiative, employment was at its lowest point in a decade, and now they've risen to above where they were before the hurricane. While the pothole problem seems to be exploding, the best way to get them fixed is to call attention to them.

A man in Manchester, England, took matters into his own hands by drawing dicks around unfilled potholes in his neighborhood. Amazingly, those same potholes got filled up. We have a responsibility to look out for each other. That schlong bandit might have been obscene in his methods, but the reality is he did more for public safety than the community's representatives.

We should all follow in his footsteps by calling in these goddamn potholes and demanding more funding for our roads. Let's be responsible for our streets and each other. Wheelhouse is every Monday. Hit that subscribe button right there so you never miss an episode. You know what sucks, driving on a crappy road in a super car.

Check out this episode of The New Car Show with Pumphrey, check out this episode of Science Garage; it talks about the difference between horsepower and torque. Follow Donut on Instagram at donutmedia. Follow me at Nolan J. Sykes. Do you like this shirt? Get one at shop.donut.media. I'll see you next time.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- We all deal withpotholes on a daily basisand we all hate them.(splash sound)- (laughter) Watch out forthat first step it's a doozy.- The city of Chicagohas filled over 108,000potholes this year alone.That's almost 30,000 a month.Nearly 1,000 a day.Guys, that's a (censor beep) of potholes.(instrumental music)On average, a little over3 million drivers in the USsuffer pothole related damage every year.This can be anything, from popping a tire,to bending a rim, to blowingout a shock absorber.The direct financial costsof fixing these damagesadds up to nearly 120 billiondollars for America's drivers.Even worse than a financial annoyance,a pothole can cause a crash with eventhe most experienced drivers.Of approximately 33,000traffic deaths a year, as manyas one third are attributed to poor roadconditions like potholes.So, what are our options?Can't we just build new roads?Building roads is insanely expensive.Designing better foundationsfor our roads featuringimproved drainage wouldn'tdecrease the frequencyof potholes, on top of thatthese improved foundationsare much more expensive to build.Especially with America'slarge road networkcompared to smallercountries such as Belgium.Belgium is a small country with about97,000 miles of pavement.America on the other hand hasover 4 million miles of roadsacross it's 50 states.With enough drivers thatthese roads have to support3.2 trillion miles of travel every year.That's the equivalent ofdriving to Pluto from Earthand back again more than 300 times.- Holy sh--(censor beep)- Yeah.A two lane road costsanywhere from 2 millionto 11 million dollars a mile.Luckily we already have4 million miles of roads.Meaning we don't have tobuild as many new roadsas we do maintain older ones.If we fix the potholes we cansave money and save lives.The people in charge of ourroads know how they're causedand how to fix them.So why don't they?Maintaining America's largefour million mile road systemand enabling our level oftravel is seriously expensive.The American society of civilengineers who know a thingor two about roads,estimates that the cost ofmaintaining America'sroads properly is between150 billion and 200 billion dollars a yearfor the next 50 years.But America's roads only receiveabout 60 billion a year.(sad trombone sound)Now I may have only takenmath for the humanitiesin college, but that seems a few bucksshort of what roads need.If everyone of our roads wasfunded equally, every milewould get about $15,000.But that doesn't go very farbecause it can cost more thana million dollars to maintaina single mile of road.- My father gave me a smallloan of a million dollars.- This lack of money is duein large part to America'sout of date road funding scheme.The main source of foundingfor America's roadscomes from the highway trust fund,which itself is paid for by the nationalgas tax of 18.3 cents per gallon.This 18.3 cent tax hasn'tbeen raised since 1993.Not only that, the tax isfixed, meaning it doesn'tadjust for inflation.(sad trombone sound)This stagnant tax ratemeans that as the costof maintaining andbuilding roads increasesthe funding remains the same.It is this small amount offunding that causes roads toremain in disrepair for far too long.Our roads are clearlyin need or more money.- We're the money Lebowski?- Because almost all of themoney comes from out laughablysmall federal gas tax,raising it seems to be both a logicaland practical solution.In support of this there'stalk in Washington abouthiking the gas tax(cash register sound)25 cents higher,as well as allowing it tobe adjusted for inflation.But as much as this might help,nobody wants to pay more in taxes.My car averages 15 miles a gallon,you think I wanna pay more for gas?No freakin way.But guess what, people are dying- I'm a human being Goddammit!- So what we have come tois a stalemate between DCand state capitols and local governments.Nobody wants to be seen asthe guy who raised gas pricesor did nothing to repair roads.State governments attemptto offset this lack of moneythrough their own gas taxes.While this helps a bit thatoverall budget of 60 billionis nowhere near where it needs to be.Roads are ranked on a one to ten scale,with four and above being fair or better.And anything below being poor or failed.Generally, for every dollar spentfixing a road ranked(cash register sound)higher than a four,six dollars or more(cash register sound)will have to be spent on a fouror lower road to repair it equivalently.This is a big price gap.And with an average of 21%of America's roads beingin poor or worse condition,the ASCE estimates it willtake the equivalent of 2.2(cash register sound)trillion dollars to repair them.What's worse is that 21%is deceptively optimistic.Some cities and states haveover 65% of their roads(sad trombone sound)classed as poor or worse.Putting the bulk of thefinancial responsibilityon a few locations.- According to the USDOTIllinois, Connecticut,Colorado, Oklahoma, RhodeIsland, and Wisconsin all haveover 70% of their roadsalready in poor conditionor expected to reach poor condition beforerepairs are affected.A further 17 states haveover 50% of their roadsin such a condition.In some areas of more than27 states, mostly ruralthis means giving up onpaved roads for good.While it might seem unthinkable to some,these areas have decided thatthe headaches of paved roadsaren't worth the benefits,and are simply tearing themup and replacing them withcheaper, easier to maintain gravel.While this works in areaswith little to no traffic,it obviously wouldn'twork in areas that haveboth people and bad roads, like LA.Repairing potholes is ahuge way local governmentscan build goodwill withtheir constituents.Not just because the roads get better,but it turns out roadconditions have a measurableaffect and the chancesof winning re-election.Within six months of SanDiego's mayoral electionevery five pothole complaintslowered the mayor'sapproval rating by one point.The researchers concludedthat in a close electionlocal road quality coulddetermine whether theincumbent wins anotherterm or loses the election.Hurricane Harvey causedan outbreak of potholesin the Houston area.Mayor Turner has made road repaira centerpiece of his term.The mayor changed city policyso that any user reportedpothole via the 311service would be filled bythe next business day.Mayor Turner's city workshave filled nearly 10,000potholes this year, andover 60,000 last year.Making potholes a priority helped recoverynot only by creating jobsand repairing streets,but also by reducingthe obstacles to trade,improving the ability ofpeople to get new jobs,and allowing unencumberedshipments of goods and serviceson newly restored roads.Houston employs over 80people for their potholestrike team, and they can fillover 300 potholes in a day.Today Houston's economy is experiencinga dramatic upswing.All told, before theinitiative employment wasat it's lowest point in adecade, and now they've risento above where they werebefore the Hurricane.While the pothole problemseems to be explodingthe best way to get them fixed,is to call attention to them.A man in Manchester Englandtook matters into his ownhands by drawing dicksaround unfilled pot holesin his neighborhood.Amazingly, those samepotholes got filled up.We have a responsibilityto look out for each other.That schlong bandit mighthave been obscene in hismethods, but the reality ishe did more for public safety thanthe community's representatives.I say we should allfollow in his footstepsby calling in these goddamn potholes.And demanding more funding for our roads.Let's be responsible forour streets and each other.Wheelhouse is every Monday.Hit that subscribe button right thereso you never miss an episode.You know what sucks,driving on a crappy roada super car.Check out this episode of thenew car show with pumphrey,check out this episode of science garage,it talks about the difference betweenhorse power and torque.Follow Donut on Instagram, at donutmedia.Follow me at Nolan J. Sykes.Do you like this shirt, getone at shop.donut.media.I'll see you next time.