Harnessing the newfangled power of geolocation, crowdsourcing and other interweb technologies we don’t completely understand, Urban Voices has created — I kid you not — a map of Phnom Penh potholes.
Looking at the final map, it is interesting to note that streets in Daun Penh as well as the newly developed Bassac area seem to be in very good condition with few, if any, potholes. In contrast, streets the areas around Toul Sleng as well as Psar Toul Tom Pung (Russian Market) are in worse condition. Overall, only 12% of the streets surveyed fall into the category ‘very good’. The majority – 34% – of fall into the category ‘fair’. Overall, 61% of the streets surveyed were either ‘fair’, ‘poor’, and ‘very poor’. However, only 6% of the streets surveyed were in very poor condition – this may however reflect the fact that most of the reports we received are from central Phnom Penh.
Undoubtedly, the first goal of UV’s map is to alert the capital’s high-rolling, Lexus-driving, iPhone5s-having residents to the perils of Phnom Penh roadways, lest they spill their Brown coffee. The second is almost certainly a desire to motivate the Ministry of Public Works to get off its collective backside and fix these poor, neglected streets. Because at $4 a mug, spilling your coffee is no joke.