Russia’s “Citizen” Road Repairs: Get ‘Em Road Potholes Fixed!
When everything else fails, try the Internet. That seams to be the new mantra of drivers in Vladivostok, one of Russia’s most remote cities. Tired of the unresponsiveness of local officials to the dire need to repair roads in the center of Vladivostok, the drivers parked their cars and spilled their anger in an Internet forum. The online consensus was to use collective buying power and patch up the roads once and for all.
Russia’ RIANovosti reports that the drivers have each chipped in to buy some ashphalt and hire a road crew to assist in the road repairs. Hours of work, and the city of Vladivostok now has two newly repaired stretches of city road to be proud of.
I personally think this is a business model in disguise for fixing Russian infrastructure. First, it speeds things up. Considerably. Secondly, it only comes down to pennies when the entire city chips in. Except, I thought that was how the provincial tax worked. But, in any case, I do seriously think that owning a stretch of that road will do the trick for some of the reckless drivers out there who cruise around with no regard for public property. Watch for them to slow down before the stretch of the road that they personally helped to «sponsor».