SAN DIEGO — A new study ranked the average number of potholes in communities across San Diego, and Mira Mesa came out on top.
The study of potholes in San Diego by sellmax.com, a car-buying service, revealed where drivers are most affected.
They conducted an analysis of repair requests through the city’s Get It Done app.
In 2023, the zip codes with the highest number of potholes reported were Mira Mesa, Kearny Mesa, and Clairemont Mesa. Mira Mesa drivers reported 1,962 potholes in 2023 alone.
"You can get picked up for driving drunk because you are trying to miss all the potholes, you know what I mean? Why are you driving like that sir? Well, it's Mira Mesa, sir, you should know," said Mira Mesa driver, Robert Hughes.
"Oh my God, it’s a mess. It's horrible driving up and down these roads. It's terrible on your tires! It's atrocious and it doesn’t need to be like this," said another driver, Jennie Quintana.
La Jolla and Pacific Beach round off the top 5 list; all with reports of more than 1,000 potholes.
Rancho Santa Fe ranks the lowest with only one pothole reported.
"My niece's car was damaged by a pothole. I'm estimating anywhere between $2- $5,000 because it ripped the fuel pump!" said Quintana.
If a vehicle sustains pothole damage, sellmax.com data shows it will cost an average of $600 to repair it. AAA data reveals a staggering $26.5 billion was spent by drivers in 2021 to repair pothole damage to their vehicles.
The City told CBS 8:
Geographic differences in pothole reporting throughout San Diego can depend on a variety of factors including overall road condition and road attributes (such as road classification, traffic loading, vehicle type and pavement type) and road user attributes (such as population density). The City of San Diego's pothole patching program responds to all pothole instances reported through Get it Done and City crews pro-actively repair unreported potholes while they are in the field. While the City has not analyzed or verified the data included in the article, we note that the article indicates data is summarized for 2023 only which is a snapshot in time and does not indicate trends. The City is currently completing a full condition assessment of the City’s pavement condition, and we expect to publish the results of this assessment in Fall 2023.
"Hopefully, we can clean it up and fix it up and make it safer for everyone else," said driver, Joshua Rodriguez.
To report a pothole and request street repairs, click here.
WATCH RELATED: City of San Diego works to fix crumbling streets, potholes
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