Road Commission wrote about 2 hours ago

The Road Commission for Oakland County shares your frustration. Unfortunately, there simply is no money available to resurface this road. It, like many, many other roads across the county SHOULD be resurfaced. However, due to the road-funding crisis we face in Michigan there is NO money to do so.

In fact, as a result of declining road funds, we predict far more roads will fall into disrepair in the coming several years. As we have said, take a look at the roads around you today. This is the best they are likely to be for a long time.

Because of the decline in road funding (we receive 5% less state road funding today than we received in 2000, while the costs of maintaining roads has gone up dramatically during this period), we have been forced to eliminate all road resurfacing projects except those paid for with federal dollars.

However, based on the amount of federal funding we receive, it will take us 137 years to repave all of the roads on our system on which federal funds can legally be spent. By that time, most will have long ago returned to gravel. That's the good news.

The bad news is that only one third of our system is federal-aid eligible (meaning we cannot legally spend federal dollars on the remaining two thirds of the road system). For that remaining two thirds of the system, there is NO funding available for resurfacing.

In fact, that is why more than 30 county road commissions across Michigan have already returned more than 100 miles of paved roads to gravel -- they could not afford to maintain the paved surfaced and there was no money available to resurface. In those situations, the only option is to pulverize the road and return it to gravel. I suspect we will see a lot more of that in coming years.

Why are we in this situation? Because Michigan has been among the bottom 10 states in the nation in per capita state and local road funding for more than 45 years. That means that since at least 1964, Michigan residents have been paying less to maintain their roads than the residents of most other states. Unfortunately, we have gotten what we paid for: An inferior, crumbling road system.

So, yes, we agree Joslyn should be resurfaced. Unfortunately, because Michigan has not made its roads a priority, there are no resources available to do this.

One final note: Unfortunately, we are also not able to patch the potholes on this road as frequently as we have in the past. As a result of our dropping budget, we now have 15% fewer employees than in 2007. That is a lot of bodies no longer available to patch potholes, plow snow, grade gravel roads, fix road flooding issues, etc., etc.

Road Commission for Oakland County

Last week we posted a letter from the Road Commission for Oakland County describing the financial woes preventing them from repairing problems posted on SeeClickFix.

But Oakland County's isn't the only Michigan road commission struggling to find cash to repave its streets. The Road Commission for Macomb County sent us this graph (pictured below), which shows their funding for repairs in steady decline since 2007.

Despite budget cuts, Oakland County is on board to make SeeClickFix fit their needs. We created a county-wide watch area today (pictured at top), so that the road commission can keep on top of its issues.

Parents, students, staff and school officials at Clarkston High School in Clarkston, MI are using SeeClickFix to voice concerns about the hazardous traffic conditions that arise every day at first and last bell.

After seeing a SeeClickFix widget on The Oakland Press website, CHS Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) President Andrea Schroeder logged on and reported Issue #83483: Unsafe signal for left turn.

The left turn lane from westbound Clarkston Road onto Flemings Lake is dangerously long during the morning high school rush. Drivers are forced to make turns after the light has changed due to no left turn arrow. The traffic causes backups on Clarkston Road and unsafe conditions on a main through-way in the community. There have been several complaints this year.

Knowing many others in the Clarkston community were concerned about the intersection, Andrea printed out an email from SeeClickFix about her issue and distributed copies to parents at a recent PTSA meeting. On Monday she began an email chain, forwarding 20 or so people the notification that linked them to the issue. Shortly after pressing "send", recipients of Andreas email were adding their own comments, voting to fix the issue, and encouraging others in the community to do the same by spreading the word themselves. 



Since Monday, the issue has been viewed over 800 times and received over 300 votes to fix the intersection once and for all. The response, mostly from concerned parents, is unanimous.

Guest user J.S. expressed concern about new drivers navigating the intersection on their way to and from school. 

Many of the drivers attempting to negotiate this area during high traffic times are high school students. Their lack of experience could cause traffic back-ups and/or serious traffic accidents. A left-turn arrow would help alleviate the congestion and danger. 

SeeClickFix user CHS Parent supports fixing the issue and notes that the intersection has long been in need of improvements.

This has been needed for many years. I have seen many drivers make risky and illegal left turns, as well as drivers who are turning right on to Flemings Lake Rd stop on a green signal to let someone turn left and almost get rear ended by the car behind them who weren't anticipating having to stop on a green light. Seems like a green arrow would be a small thing with a huge payoff!

User Suzanne Thompson voices her primary concern of ensuring school areas are safe.

Anything that makes school areas safer for children should be done. The addition of a left turn arrow at the light would make the area more secure. I'm all for it.

The community outcry over this issue has caught the attention of the Road Commission for Oakland County. Someone from the department viewed the issue on SeeClickFix and offered an explanation as to why the problem has yet to be addressed.

We track the top 50 intersections and road segments in the county each year in terms of traffic crashes (as documented by police reports). There is no way to track "near" accidents. Since there have been relatively few actual accidents at this intersection, it would not appear in our ranking.

Since sending out her SeeClickFix email blast on Monday, Andrea has personally been in contact with the Road Commission for Oakland County, who confirmed that the intersection in front of Clarkston High School is on their radar. However, until drivers are able to safely make a left turn, the PTSA President is committed to keeping the issue and the conversation open.

From the initial email chain, to their positive and constructive comments on our site, Andrea Schroeder and the entire Clarkston High School community are perfect examples of how citizens use SeeClickFix to come together and advocate for a resolution to their issues. We can't wait to feature a follow-up post about the intersection improvements that we hope result from their efforts!

Almost a year ago today we told you about a group of citizens in Clarkston, MI using SeeClickFix to improve a dangerous intersection outside of their local high school. Clarkston High School (CHS) Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) President Andrea Schroeder reported Issue #83483: Unsafe signal for left turn through our media partner The Oakland Press. Andrea printed emails from SeeClickFix about her issue and distributed copies to parents at a PTSA meeting. To get even more of her friends and neighbors on board she also started an email chain, forwarding them notifications from our site. Before the issue was featured on the SeeClickFix blog, it had received over 300 votes and dozens of comments from concerned members of the Clarkston community.

Andrea’s commitment to spreading the word about this hazardous turn also captured the attention of the Road Commission for Oakland County, who confirmed that the intersection outside of Clarkston High School was on their radar. Throughout the year, Andrea and others from the CHS community worked with local officials and came to SeeClickFix to post updates and share information about the status of the intersection. This Wednesday, Andrea logged on to finally close the issue she opened last year!

I have great news: the new traffic signals have both been installed! The RCOC is working on the timing of the lights, but this should be cleared up soon. I'm so excited to finally close this issue out as fixed. THANK YOU AGAIN for your consistent support and interest in resolving this important safety issue. Our kids are safer, and Clarkston is a better place for it. THANK YOU!

Andrea was kind enough to email us this photo of the beautiful new left turn light recently installed outside of Clarkston High School. She and the entire Clarkston High School community are perfect examples of how SeeClickFix unites citizens and helps them advocate for resolution to issues in the public space. Congrats to everyone who worked so hard to resolve this problem!

New Haven, Conn., January 15th, 2014 - Today, SeeClickFix released a native app for Android that allows citizens to report neighborhood issues--such as potholes, graffiti and burned-out streetlights--and engage with their neighbors and the government officials responsible for fixing/addressing these issues. 

"The Android extension has become a top priority over the past six months due to consumer and government behavior on the platform," said Ben Berkowitz, CEO, SeeClickFix. "We've seen from our users that local government employees are more likely to be carrying a government issued smartphone or tablet, with many on the Android OS. We saw issues created by government officials increase by 600 percent in 2013, indicating that smartphone reporting apps are becoming a popular medium for increasing municipal productivity and citizen engagement."




Android App Eases User Experience The new SeeClickFix Android app is designed to make it easy to report, comment, track and share issues in your neighborhood — bringing the performance, speed and aesthetic of top-performing consumer apps to the government engagement platform. Among the core features of the application:

• Users have access to an infinite scrolling list of issues documented in their community—complete with photos, location and the ability to comment and support existing issues. Government users can acknowledge and close out issues that they have worked on from the field.

• When documenting a new issue a user's location is determined by GPS and they are walked through an intuitive issue reporting form determined by the responding agency in their community. Photos and videos can be added from the camera or gallery to illuminate the issue.  

• Once an issue has been submitted, it is routed based on request type and keywords to the appropriate agency. Responses from the agency and others are then documented on the issue and pushed back to the user.

SeeClickFix serves as an unofficial channel for citizens and governments to communicate in more than 10,000 communities around the world.  In the past few years the platform has also become the official service request platform for local governments serving over 25 million individuals.  Official city partners include Washington DC; Houston, Texas; San Francisco, CA; Oakland, CA; Sacramento County and The Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The new Android application is available for download here.