Making the Wiggle Safer One Sunken Utility Cover at a Time

Today the sunken manhole at Scott & Page repaired

In the turning range for bicyclists travelling Page to Scott on the Wiggle

SFBC's Good Roads volunteers ID hazards like these and Turn Them In to DPW via 311

Hundreds of people on bikes spin along the Scott and Page segments of the Wiggle bike route every day. Today their rides are safer with the repair of a sunken utility cover (aka a manhole) situated at the northeast corner of the intersection. This one is an example of what sometimes happens when repaving a street does not include raising the utility core and cover to be flush with the new surface.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's two-year-old Good Roads volunteers report these below-grade hazards whenever they're sighted. The utility covers usually require more work and more time to repair, but a good fix for them is just as important as the more common pothole. In April of this year, SFBC launched its Turn Em In campaign to emphasize that anyone can -- and, please, should -- report street defects like these to 311. Thanks to the Bureau of Street Use & Mapping of the Department of Public Works for getting this done.

The disclosure: The Page & Scott sunken cover is one that I happened to report. Yesterday afternoon I biked right over it.