• Geolocation API

Pothole reporting system

A wacky idea that I may still pursue, although it's a bit late for this season. It might be a fun and educational programmer exercise though.

Jan 2014 ToledoTalk.com thread about potholes.

Surely, a pothole reporting/searching mobile app exists. It could operate many ways. One way:

Reporting

• Driver holds the phone in one hand while still driving safely.
• Driver simply taps a huge button on the mobile app each time that the driver sees a pothole.
• The driver would not need to look at the phone.
• Of course, the GPS coordinates are logged for the hole.
• It would be nice, however, to have a three-point, pothole rating system, but that would be another click and probably too much for a driver to do. Unless three large buttons existed on the app instead of one huge button. Each button represents each type of pothole. But this may also require the driver to look down at the phone.
  • 1=solid thud, but still good enough to drive over
  • 2=risky
  • 3=rim-buster, avoid at all costs

Searching

• When driving somewhere, the driver plots the route, and the app indicates the pothole locations that are color-coded to match the severity level, if using the three-point rating system.

Or people could use these Web forms to report potholes:

• City of Toledo : Pothole Repair Request Form - "To report potholes that need to be repaired you may call 419-936-BUMP or fill out the form."
• ODOT : Report a Pothole - "To report a pothole, click on Add new item, then fill out the popup form."

This mobile app called Pothole Alert 311 works with the 311 system for some cities.

Toledo does not have a 311 system, but Mayor Collins plans to implement one.

Dec 23, 2013 Blade story

The new mayor plans to assign Mr. Leggett the task of creating a 311 system for Toledo. Such a system could handle nonemergency calls for city services, such as public utilities and pothole repair, or even non-emergency police calls, depending on how it is configured.

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Toledo's 2014 street resurfacing plan is not finalized yet, but the following was reported by the Toledo Blade on Jan 18, 2014:

Collins offers initial plan for street projects - "Proposal seems to suggest fixes to fewer miles than under Bell"

The Collins administration has not released a plan for sidewalks and curbs.

City Spokesman Lisa Ward said the full capital improvements budget and the 2014 general fund budget are being revised.

“We have no idea yet how many streets we will pave in 2014,” Ms. Ward said. Ms. Ward said the residential streets likely would be divided equally among the city’s six council districts.

The street projects identified Friday for resurfacing are:

• Madison from 11th to Woodruff.
• Nebraska Avenue from Detroit Avenue to Collingwood Boulevard.
• Douglas Road from Dorr Street to Kenwood Boulevard.
• Suder Avenue from Manhattan Boulevard to just north of Abygail Trail.
• Dorr from Byrne Road to Douglas.

The city is also paving streets for the Lucas Metropolitan Housing Authority’s new Collingwood Green Senior Community,

Geolocation API

Feb 10, 2014 update: maybe I can make this a web app.

http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_geolocation.asp

Great server-side code that exposes an API.

The browser-based code calls the API, using JSON and REST.

The database would store:
- auto-incrementing ID number
- geolocation of the pothole
- UTC date
- scale of 1 to 3 for ranking the pothole's severity

#toledo - #politics - #mobile - #app - #311system - #todo - #blog_jr