Boston officials hope a new smartphone application could eventually eliminate the need to send out trucks to survey hundreds of miles of roadways covering New England’s largest city to figure out the locations of potholes. (July 20)
[Notes:July 2012]
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[Notes:AP]
[Notes:Boston]
THEY ARE ONE OF LIFE’S LITTLE ANNOYANCES …
THE UNPREDICTABLE … SOMETIMES PAINFUL … POTHOLE.
IN A CITY LIKE BOSTON … WITH 806 MILES OF ROAD … AND UNFORGIVING WINTER WEATHER … FINDING AND FIXING 19,000 POTHOLES A YEAR IS A BIG JOB.
[Notes:Matthew Mayrl, chief of staff, Boston public works department]
SOT: We probably have 30 to 40 staff out each day. One of their responsibilities is to identify potholes.
BUT FIXING DIPS AND DROPS ALONG THE WAY … IS NOW AS EASY AS A TAP.
A SMART PHONE APP … CALLED STREET BUMP … LOCATES AND REPORTS POTHOLES.
[Notes:Nigel Jacob, co-chair of Boston Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics]
SOT: It uses the accelerometers to detect the change in acceleration in the phone and it uses the GPS to gather the location at that spot.
ALGORITHIMS FILTER OUT KNOWN ROUGH SPOTS … LIKE MANHOLE COVERS AND SPEED BUMPS.
GET ENOUGH DATA FROM ENOUGH SMART PHONES … ALL DRIVING BOSTON STREETS … AND THE WISDOM OF THE CROWD REPLACES SURVEY CREWS GOING BLOCK TO BLOCK.
[Notes:Nigel Jacob, co-chair of Boston Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics]
SOT: It essentially creates a new way for people to donate their data in solving public good challenges.
STREET BUMP HAS SPARKED INTEREST FROM OTHER CITIES AROUND THE WORLD … TWEAK ITS CODE … AND THE APP COULD HAVE OTHER USES … LIKE THE EARLY DETECTION OF EARTHQUAKES.
NEW TECHNOLOGY … PATCHING AN OLD PROBLEM … WHERE THE FIX STILL REQUIRES SWEAT AND SHOVELS.
LEE POWELL, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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