The worst potholes in the world – take the Gadling tour

by Scott Carmichael on

Join us on a tour of the worst potholes in the world – and find out which American city makes many third world countries look like a bunch of amateurs with their potholes.

Harare, Zimbabwe

According to its residents, nowhere in the world is the pothole situation worse than in Harare. Unlike potholes that just make your ride a bit bumpy, their potholes actually attempt to swallow your car.


Chicago, IL

Chicago is on par with many third world countries when it comes to road repairs.

Not only does the city have 100’s of miles of poorly maintained roads, they also lack the money/manpower/will/interest to repair them.

The city keeps telling residents that they have crews working around the clock, but try telling that to the 1000’s of people who need to buy new wheels for their car after hitting one of these monstrous holes. Chicago even has a special portion on their web site where drivers can file a claim for pothole damage.

Yes – the city of Chicago is so behind on their pothole repairs that KFC decided to fill the holes themselves, and use the whole thing for a bit of goodwill generating PR.

Colombo, Srilanka

Colombo is one of those cities where potholes morph into sinkholes. Large amounts of rain scour the ground from under the roadbed, and the result is the kind of hole that can swallow a car.

Another Colombo pot/sinkhole. Thankfully it doesn’t look like any vehicles were lost in this thing, but you can clearly see some damaged pipes and other infrastructure in the massive hole.

Jamaica

Bad combination – super relaxing island and the kind of pothole that will really put a dent in your day (and wheels). It is bad enough when you hit one of these things with your car, but popping the front wheel of your moped or bike in them is enough to turn your bike seat into an ejector seat.

Michigan potholes from hell



I’ll let this video clip speak for itself.

New Orleans, LA

It’s not really fair to criticize New Orleans for their potholes – the city is still recovering from Katrina, but that doesn’t make this pothole less impressive. Notice the car tire on the left, showing just how deep this thing is.

Xiamen City, China

Ouch. The only thing worse than hitting a killer Chinese pothole, is hitting one when a photographer is standing there waiting for you to go flying, just so he can snap a great picture.

Liu Tao was criticized for not warning cyclists of the danger lying ahead of them. If you enjoy seeing people get hurt, or just want to know how the fall ends, check out the other photos at the source article.

In Russia, pothole drive you?

Funny how you can make almost any video interesting by adding some snappy Greek music to the background!

Kiev, Ukraine

I’m not sure whether this pothole appeared out of the blue when people were coming down the road, or whether these cars were simply parked in the wrong place at the wrong time. But it sure looks like an expensive mess.

New York, NY

For the final pothole in this lineup, what better place than New York City? Seriously, when the potholes get this big, you may be better off leaving the car at home and sticking with public transport.

Trials rider Danny MacAskill carves up Edinburgh

by Aaron Hotfelder on

The video below, via Outside Magazine’s excellent blog, shows an amazing Scottish biketrials rider named Danny MacAskill absolutely running rampant all over Scotland’s capital.

If you’ve never heard of trials riding before, the sport (at it’s best) can feature a rider jumping fences, hopping up on roofs, doing flips off trees, and all sorts of other mind-boggling stunts– all without a foot touching the ground. Trials riding, incidentally, may also be the world’s most painful sport to learn.

Over 2.4 million people have already watched the video below, which really gets good at the 1:02 mark.

Photo of the day (4.28.09)

by Grant Martin on

Tickets to Germany have been on super sale for the past few weeks, as they normally are this time of the year. The problem is that most budget tickets are into Frankfurt, which hasn’t got a ton of exciting tourist attractions. Luckily, a variety of beautiful cities like Cologne are nearby, where the above picture of the Kölner Dom was taken by rafapdalbem1. Neat shot.

Got any cool photos that you’d like to share with the world? Add them to the Gadling Pool on Flickr and it might be chosen as our Photo of the Day. Make sure you save them under Creative Commons though, otherwise we can’t use them!

Swiss say no to naked hikers in the Alps

by Scott Carmichael on

Voters in the Swiss Canton of Appenzell Inner Rhodes got to have their say in a proposal put together to ban naked hikers in their region of the Alps.

The (primarily German) hikers had been prancing through the Alps without any clothes, much to the chagrin of the residents.

People caught in the buff will now receive a 200CHF fine (about $176).

Residents of the Inner Rhodes area have described the naked tourists as “thoroughly disturbing and irritating,”

Their neighbors in the Appenzell Outer Rhodes Canton are preparing a similar ban which will probably bring an end to the German web sites describing the activity as “a special experience of nature, free and healthy”.

Still, these German naturists could always check out this recently opened hotel in their own country.

Air France jet diverts after being told to stay clear of US airspace

by Scott Carmichael on

If you ever wondered just how serious the US takes its security policies, then read on, because even people on the terrorist watch list that are flying over the US are enough of a threat to force a plane to divert.

An Air France flight from Paris to Mexico had to make an unscheduled stop in Martinique when US air traffic controllers notified the jet that it would not be receiving permission to fly over US airspace.

That’s right – the plane was not en route to the US, just passing over some of it, on its way to Mexico.

On board the plane was Colombian Journalist Hernando Calvo Ospina, who works for Le Monde Diplomatique.

What makes the whole incident even more interesting is that Air France had only sent its passenger manifest to the Mexicans, but now it is clear that Mexico shares this information with the United States.

Hernando Calvo Ospina has written articles about the United States involvement in Latin America, and is currently writing a book about he CIA. The exact reason for him being on the terrorist watch list is unknown, and we’ll probably never know what criteria are used for adding people to it. Air France is considering asking the United States for compensation. Good luck with that.

Update: A commenter left this link to a detailed descrption of what happened, written by the “terrorist” himself.