PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — It feels like you can’t go anywhere around Philadelphia without dodging a pothole — and then slamming into one.
But believe it or not, a new study, partnered with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ranked Philadelphia roads among the best of any big city in the country.
We remember when infrastructure fails us, but we don’t give it a second thought when the ride happens to be smooth, according to Ben Schmidt. His tech startup RoadBotics is trying to solve that sampling bias problem and improve on the ol’ windshield survey conducted by maintenance crews.
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“Using smartphones, GoPros, any imaging devices — drones included — to basically capture imagery about infrastructure,” he said, which is then analyzed using artificial intelligence, taking the subjective “us” out of the equation.
“All the mapping technology that we use really tells you, this is the location of the problem,” he continued. “That becomes really exciting. You can correlate the ‘here’s the answer from this machine-learning algorithm’ with the ‘and here’s what we want to do about it.’ ”
The data RoadBotics collected for this study actually do show that Philadelphia’s roads are in better shape than other cities’ streets and highways — at least the 75 miles compared in each place.
Following Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Florida, and New York City ranked among the best roads. Phoenix and Detroit tied 19th for the worst road conditions.
The study intends to show officials the benefits of making infrastructure decisions driven by data, so they can use that information to fix potholes but also to address the cracks and distresses in the pavement before they become craters.