- Local Street Maintenance one of the most visible indicators of local government performance.
- ..yet the least transparent and very inefficient allocation of public capital.
- relies chiefly on people who complain into their phones.
- nefarious and nepotistic
- ...also relies on a cottage industry of intermediateries who either perform "windshield surveys" (eyeballing streets) or over-engineered, military grade laser trucks.
- We can do more with less.
- A decentralized method to allow streets to effectively repair themselves by leveraging a citywide ground truthed street data collection tied to smart contracts.
- https://medium.com/a-r-g-o/self-repairing-streets-using-smart-contracts-6b2b7461880e
- Every street segment or standard city block is assigned a digital wallet that contains some pre-defined tax-payer money.
- Digital street condition surveys (not windshield surveys!) are performed in real-time across every single city block.
- Our SQUID project has demonstrated how this can be done at low-cost using open-source technology. These surveys can be performed either by dedicated municipal fleets or private vehicles able to transmit ground truthed street condition data. (These vehicles could also be compensated for this service)
- These real-time survey data can be stored on the city{block}-chain to keep track of current street conditions.
- Over time, as different street segments wear and tear differently, each street segment has a smart contract built into it such that once it falls below some “smoothness or quality threshold” , it releases a “request for repair” . if my condition < smoothness threshold then issue a Request for Repair(RFR)
- Pavement repair companies can bid on these algorithmically generated RFR’s.
- The company that wins a bid to repair must complete the street repair within some set of generally acceptably parameters (time, cost etc). During this time, any complaints registered against this repair company can be attached to its profile and affects future bids.
- The affected street segment is closed for the duration of repair.
- Once repair is complete, the road is open and re-surveyed by vehicles that pass over it.
- The first “n” surveys determine if the repair-work is successful or not. The street segment then credits the pavement repair company with agreed upon $$$ or deductions in case of poor work.
- Citywide street maintenance can be distributed evenly if streets are able to exchange funds within certain community districts. Public funds are therefore allocated more equitably and efficiently based on a literal Ground Truth consensus mechanism.