Bostonians may have enjoyed a chance to see a rare warm day melt some snow Sunday – but in many places, what the receding snow revealed as a whole new crop of dozens and dozens of new potholes.
It’s a plague that another hard freeze and cycle of thawing and freezing will just make worse, and a plague that sent Ed McGillicuddy of Jamaica Plain to Sullivan Tires in Packards Corner looking for a new set of tires.
“This winter has been awesome,’’ said McGillicuddy – but not in the Valley Girl sense of “wonderful,” but the original sense of daunting and inspiring fear. “Awesome both on people’s backs and on the streets. Mother Nature has been kicking our behind.’’
Richie Lobo Jr., the manager of the Commonwealth Avenue Sullivan Tire and Auto Service, said the rash of potholes has been driving in a steady stream of car and truck owners. “They’re bad. They’re just everywhere,’’ Lobo said, adding that it’s been common to come in seeing people with a pair of flat tires, front and back on the side where they hit the pothole, and damaged wheel rims as well.
Through Friday, according to Bonnie McGilpin, a spokeswoman for Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, the city had received 532 complaints about potholes through its Citizens Connect service, and has filled 111 of those. Many more potholes have been found and fixed by roving pothole crews as well, and through Friday, the city used more than 100,000 pounds of hot top filling potholes. On Tuesday, 15 crews are scheduled to be out on the streets of Boston plugging holes.
It’s not just motorists who are suffering, but hardy bicyclists as well, like James Kim, a Boston University graduate student who now has to maneuver not just among motorists but snowbanks and potholes as well. “It can put you in real danger,’’ Kim said. “Not just the potholes, but the black ice as well.’’
As a man they turn to after they’ve seen the worst potholes can do, what advice does Lobo have for motorists? “Drive slowly. Be cautious. Leave some car lengths between you and the vehicle in front of you,’’ Lobo said, so you have a chance to see and react to the pothole ahead. “Maybe you can kind of brace yourself, or get away from it, safely,’’ Lobo said.
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Because, as an old piece of Boston neighborhood folklore has it, potholes are God’s revenge on tailgaters.
