Europe takes the Lead

So yesterday I’m watching the final episode of the season of Fifth Gear. Hey, it will do until Top Gear comes back whenever is, and this one feature came up. It was about the Rapid Pothole Response Squad is this is a little run down of what they do. This European squad is on call 24 hours a day, and what exactly do they do, they fix pot holes, but how does this work? Well any member of the public can call a toll free number whenever they encounter a substantial pot hole on their travels. Once the call is received within the office, a team is sent out to wherever the pothole is. If the pothole measures deeper than 60mm, then they will it. All this within 90 minutes of the call…24 hours a day!!! They are then guided by personal, handheld computer with directs them precisely to the pothole location, a la GPS.

OK, is there a better idea out there for road repair? How many times have you been driving around the same route you take every day to work only to avoid the same pothole every damn time for months on end until it’s repaired? Think about all those pesky potholes that may be on your road, a not to heavily trafficked one. Who is ever going to repair those ones? Can you imagine the scenario that you hit or even just seen a pothole, you pick up your cell phone, call the number, and by the time you travel out for lunch, it’s patched? This is the most brilliant idea I have ever heard. But what are the chances that Canada will ever have some sort of implementation similar to this one…never. Let’s just put that on the list of why Europe is awesome. The stats below show that Europe cares about its drivers. They would rather use money to employ this type of task force than have its citizens spend millions on car repairs every year…repairs that can easily be prevented.

I’m sensing an entrepreneurial venture here. Can you imagine if a company started this up on their own in Nova Scotia and received approval from the city? Imagine the city did not have to worry about minor road repairs and people demanding money from them for damage done to vehicles. You’d be the most loved people in the city.

Some stats from the show:

- 1.1 Million motorists damage wheels and tires by hitting a pothole.
- 1 in 5 mechanical failures are thought to be caused by bad roads.
- 320 Million pounds were spent in 2006 to fix that damage.
- That is 10 times the amount spent on fixing potholes.
- This one team can repair up to 40 potholes per day.

Europe – 1, Canada - Nil

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