The Chudnovsky "Tour de pot-hole" 2007

Sorry, but this one was just way too incredible for me to leave alone. The fact that David Chudnovsky has garnered so much attention from it (admittedly as I contribute myself) takes ridiculous to an entirely new level. This only helps reinforce my opinion that our current government is doing a pretty good job.

Last week NDP MLA and transportation critic David Chudnovsky enlisted the help of a friend with a 4x4 to embark on what I'm sure will go down in the BC political history books as the most significant fact finding mission ever taken on by any party in opposition. The purpose of this noble and lofty mission...to count potholes along a stretch of provincially maintained highway. Chudnovsky and friend took two days to travel highways between Vancouver and Prince George and returned with this earth-shattering report. Along the way they found some 670 potholes, 90 significant pools of water and 400 damaged or buried signs.

I'm not kidding!

As most of us are painfully aware, we are in the midst of a winter that has thrown what may be some of the worst weather that we've seen in a decade. Weather that, while extremely bad for things like Stanley Park trees and California fruits and vegetables, has been ideal in producing a bumper crop of potholes in blacktop patches everywhere. In fact, as Chudnovsky fails to mention, potholes are abundant everywhere including city and municipally maintained roads, public and private parking lots and many of our own private driveways. There are probably 50 potholes on Renfrew Street (near my house) between 1st Avenue and Hastings and there is one particularly nasty teeth chattering pothole in North Vancouver on Capilano Road that I manage to hit nearly every day. The point you ask...potholes are an unavoidable part of winter, especially an unusually cold winter like the one that we are in right now. Go to Walter Schultz's blog in the links at the right for some great information on how potholes are formed.

Vancouver-Hastings own NDP MLA and environment critic Shane Simpson must have been tossing in his sleep in absolute turmoil over Chudnovsky's decision to consider pothole counting over the impact that his two-day trip may have had towards global warming. But I have a suggestion as to how similar trips can be justified in the future (it is supposed to freeze again this weekend, meaning more potholes are inevitable). The next time that David Chudnovsky or any other citizen concerned with the increasing number of potholes decides to embark on a mission to count them, I suggest that he (or they) throw a few bags of cold patch into the back of their vehicle. This will serve a couple of purposes first, the added weight will help with traction on those slippery winter roads and second, once the pothole has been counted it can be filled. This will provide a great service to all of the travellers that follow and it will make an otherwise ridiculous and unnecessary trip useful.