Oakland Cyclist Wins $3.25 Million Pothole Payday
The city of Oakland (and its insurance carrier) has agreed to payout $3.25 million to a woman who was seriously injured after she slammed into a pothole while riding her bike on Mountain Boulevard in the Oakland Hills in 2011.
According to her lawsuit filed in Alameda County, 35-year-old crash victim Dulcey Bower was wearing a helmet at the time, but the pitfall sent her head-first over the handlebars, sailing 21 feet before crashing into the pavement. The impact left her in a medically-induced coma for four days and she had to have seven operations to repair the damage to her head, face, teeth and jaw. She now sports titanium plates in her mouth.
The lawsuit also stated that the city of Oakland had failed to repair potholes along the stretch of Mountain Boulevard even though other cyclists had been complaining for years. The pothole was repaired four months after Bower's crash.
November 2016
SF And Oakland Road Conditions Are The Worst In The Country
A single, gaping pothole can result in hundreds if not thousands of dollars in repairs for a car owner, and thus Trip, a transportation group based in Washington DC, puts effort into tracking the condition of America's major highways and thoroughfares to figure out where infrastructure spending is needed the most. According to their new report, just released, San Francisco and Oakland aren't just among the worst places in the country for poor pavement conditions, we're actually number one. And the top three metro areas of 500,000 people are more with the worst roads are in car-heavy California, with LA ranking number two, and San Jose coming in a close third.
All told, the major roads of SF and Oakland were rated "71% poor," while pothole-filled Los Angeles was found to be only 60%.
And road conditions aren't just important for drivers, since cyclists can be seriously injured by potholes too. An Oakland woman won a $3.25 million judgement against the city after slamming into a pothole in the Oakland Hills in 2011.
http://sfist.com/2016/11/02/report_sf_and_oakland_road_conditio.php
Bumpy Roads Ahead:
America’s Roughest Rides and Strategies to make our Roads Smoother
http://www.tripnet.org/docs/Urban_Roads_TRIP_Report_November_2016.pdf
San Francisco and Oakland roads deemed worst in nation again
December 2016
http://sf.curbed.com/2016/12/22/14057652/sf-roads-worst-nation-trip
Oakland Potholes.. a history
Time was when, Oakland was able to properly, and promptly, maintain its infrastructure … or not:
https://localwiki.org/oakland/Potholes
September 2013
Sloppy Ridgemont repaving irks Oakland neighbors
Uneven surface, globs of pavement dot neighborhood
Oakland resident Jeff Franzen waited more than two decades to see his Ridgemont neighborhood streets repaved, and when the trucks arrived this month he thought he was in for a smooth ride
Shaff said the Ridgemont job was pushed up the list after vociferous complaints from residents. The industry standard for cities to repave roads is once every 25 to 30 years, but in Oakland that wait is often closer to 80 years, Shaff said.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Sloppy-Ridgemont-repaving-irks-Oakland-neighbors-4843702.php
