Is it illegal to mark potholes in the street?

I don't know if this is in the right section, but I was wondering if you would get in trouble for marking potholes. I am thinking bright paint, like they use to mark trees that need cutting down, or broken pavement that wants removing. There is a pothole right by my house and I think if a guy on two wheels hits it, he ends up in the front yard with the astroturf on the corner. I suspect this would hurt more than landing on grass, but less than hitting a tree. I have been poking around on the internet, and have not been able to figure it out. I am not about to ask a police officer, the less professional interaction with them the better IMHO.

You would think that between the super mild weather and the stratospherically high road taxes they would be better. You would be wrong, but it is a reasonable expectation.

So what do you think, is it illegal to mark potholes with fluorescent orange paint?

Possibly, but I doubt any trouble will come your way from it. If it's really that bad, you would certainly be on the moral high ground if anyone tried to bother you about it.

In fact make the marking so obvious that the local road maintenance crews cannot play dumb and say they didn't see it

Why not call the Public Works Department and get it fixed?

Or grab a couple of bags of asphalt patch and dump them in the hole?

I don't think paint will fix the problem.

I would say its not illegal.

Utility locators spray paint on the ground all the time. (Like its their job...lol) My company is a private company not contracted by the state, we place markings on the ground all the time.

If you are worried about being hassled, use flourescent pink or white paint since neither are associated with any underground utility

Why not call your town's street department to tell them about the hazard? Depending on where you live they may have a hotline or a website where you can report potholes. It's not uncommon for street departments to repair potholes based on how many complaints they get - the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

I did this once and never heard anything about it.

Spray paint is boring http://www.boredpanda.com/pothole-mosaic-jim-bachor/

Donebrokeit wrote: I did this once and never heard anything about it.

Once?? That's not even trying.

They are complaint driven. They won't even think about it until you call 50 times.

Call Public Works multiple times. Make sure you say it is a traffic hazard.

If that doesn't work, call your commissioner.

BTW, if you evidence that you are aware of the problem by painting it and posting on the Internet but don't make a reasonable effort to contact the appropriate people to get the repairs done, at some level you share a bit of the blame if anything were to happen.

Just a thought...

I don't live where the city does their job.

I live where small bureaucrats are afraid of loosing there job when people complain to bigger bureaucrats, and where the words "traffic hazard" and "law suit" make bigger bureaucrats worry about getting their names in the paper.

The squeaky wheel...

In reply to Toebra:

It is much easier to ask for forgiveness then for permission.

Do what is right.

SVreX wrote: It is much easier to ask for forgiveness then for permission.

Let me just tell you now, that's NOT always true!

SVreX wrote: It is much easier to ask for forgiveness then for permission.

Let me just tell you now, that's NOT always true!

*I must have had such a strong desire to share my cautionary bon mot to post it twice!

Does it rain much where you are. Some ground up white chalk will mark it clear as day and wash away once it rains.

10.47 at homedepot

9.87 at homedepot/

I mean. If you are gonna make the trip

I call the city whenever there is a pothole over 3" deep on my street. They take care of it within the week... or used to. After 10 years of this they repaved the whole street

In reply to Donebrokeit:

That has been my previous experience, and is what precipitated the post

I have done the complain to city hall deal, and it has always been a less than stellar response. Chalk would work, drought in these here parts.

There is a stretch on Winding Way, between Manzanita and San Juan that is particularly sketchy, the streets South of Winding are not great either. Where you make the turn onto Barrett there is an alignment inducing bump. There is an EG Civic in mild to moderately decent shape, or a Nissan truck that I sort of covet, to cushion your slide before you hit the tree on the side of the street you happen to go off if you are going too fast when you hit it, depending if you are travelling East or West at the time you made the turn. You can count on there being someone crowding you a bit at certain times of day, traffic gets heavy, and tends to be moving fast, because it is down hill on both sides of the intersection as you approach it. Given the orientation of the road, every morning and evening one side of the street has all the cars suffering from the SUN glaring at them, just under the visor, or that is how it was the first time I made that turn in recent memory. What the heck, I need to get those camber bolts replaced, and I don't like how much camber I have in the back anyway.

Caltrans has a website, but I think they primarily work on the highways, rather than the neighborhood/surface streets. I must confess, did not look too closely at their form. I will have to check it out again. Maybe I will just cut and paste this post in the comment section, if there is one

I like the mosaic thing, but if I had time for that, my back yard would be in better shape.

I would drive more too, I have some good choices. The weather has been nice, and there are some decent roads around here. There is just something about a Porsche convertible, the sounds, especially in the 6 cylinder flavor, the smells, the way it will spank its own ass if you are injudicious with lifting your right foot in a corner. 914 would go off too, but it is the same coming or going, so it does not make you look as bad. There are some pretty incredible roads around here actually, well paved with views to stir the soul. The drive up the river East of Chico is beautiful. My Uncle Adam was on the crew that built the road through there, true story. Maybe go by the Buttes or even by way of Lake Tahoe before going home, oh my. I guess I better look and see what roads that Miata Club 25th Anniversary run is going to take.

I ought to go drive my dad's 911 with my grandson with the top down, day like today, go out to Columbia and get an ice cream cone. What am I thinking about, typing this drivel while the sun is up in the blue sky, I gotta go.

If I called the city for every pothole large enough to damage a wheel in this town I'd need to buy one of those robot caller things.

It must be nice to live somewhere that you could identify a single pothole as a problem.

3" deep is a pothole?

There's one on the way in to work that is through at least two layers of asphalt, nearly half a lane wide and maybe 2/3rds as long. If there's traffic, everyone slows down to a near walking speed and lurches through it or changes lanes to avoid it. I found that if you hit it at 40mph it's barely hard enough of a whump to make the CD player skip.

Last year, I remember a bridge that lost a big chunk of concrete right before the expansion gap. I saw at least two cars with the R/F suspension torn out after hitting it.

Just wait for a Fiat to fall in and then smooth it over.

Just do it, if someone questions you, you can explain to them the danger of said pothole.

SVreX wrote: Why not call the Public Works Department and get it fixed? Or grab a couple of bags of asphalt patch and dump them in the hole? I don't think paint will fix the problem.

I seem to remember a story where a guy did this, the city fined him, dug out the potholes he 'fixed', and then left the potholes as potholes.

1kris06 wrote:

SVreX wrote: Why not call the Public Works Department and get it fixed? Or grab a couple of bags of asphalt patch and dump them in the hole? I don't think paint will fix the problem.

I seem to remember a story where a guy did this, the city fined him, dug out the potholes he 'fixed', and then left the potholes as potholes.

A letter to the editor can always fix stuff like that.

Spray paint "remember the lack of road maintenance next election" in front of them and watch how quickly they're all filled

drummerfromdefleopard wrote: Spray paint "remember the lack of road maintenance next election" in front of them and watch how quickly they're all filled

Like that would work in California

I work for a public works department. In my city marking it would not be illegal. I also second (fourth?) The suggestion to call the streets section of your local City or County Public Works department and report it. Depending on the size of the City it may take a few weeks. We have a small crew, so we wait until there's a several, then repair them all at once.