Spring is here in D.C. For most people, that means any number of things – from the Cherry Blossom Festival, the Rock n’ Roll Marathon, patio dining or, for those as unlucky as I, horrendous seasonal allergies. But, there’s one recurring tradition from D.C. government that certainly deserves attention every spring … #Potholepalooza!
Started since 2009, #Potholepalooza is D.C.’s spring campaign to repair potholes at a faster turnaround time (within 48 hours of the request) than usual (72 hours). District residents can call 311, fill out a form at 311.dc.gov, tweet or send emails to report a pothole. As a city cyclist and Car2Go driver, I’m grateful for the work that D.C. pours into this campaign after all the wear and tear of the winter months.
I pulled the data for all 2016 311 service requests from D.C.’s open data website, opendata.dc.gov. The open data website makes it easy to download all records in a CSV file. It was easy to find out just how many pothole service requests were called in and how many of those were called in during #Potholepalooza using Tableau. I also pulled D.C.’s ward shapefiles off of the open data site, and with Tableau’s 10.2 release, plotting the ward outlines on the map was a piece of cake! Explore the data below to look at 2016 data and keep your eyes peeled for the Mayor’s announcement for 2017’s #Potholepalooza!
