This man's pothole app could save your axle someday

An Ottawa software developer is putting the finishing touches on an app aimed at gettingthose cracks and craters currently proliferatingon city roads filled before they can snap another axle.

By day, Justin Kelly is a contractor with the federal government.

In his spare time, he likes to helppeople through technology, and spotteda need when it comes to potholes.

His solution is a freeautomated Facebook Messenger tool called PotSnap.

"You give it a location and then youtake a photo. It's going toask you for a size, which is something the 311 system doesn't normally do but it's useful becausethe city needs to know how bad this pothole is," Kelly told the CBC'sHallie Cotnam.

"This is a scale of one to five,five being your car's gone into a sinkhole, and one being you won't even trip. That's it, it's done, it's mailed off to the city."

If you're driving or are otherwise unable to take a quick picture, you can use the app's map to mark the location later.

Kelly said once the app is ready he still needs another month or two it will give city crews a real-time idea of where the worst potholes are.

"The [city's] online form isn't too bad, but it's kind of clunky," Kelly said of the current reporting system. "The problem with [calling 311] is that you have to go through a bunch of menus, and if you're going to report multiple potholes,it's super long."

Kelly is also working on amessenger bot forreportingbylaw infractions such as vehicles parked in no-parking zones, and he's got an idea for a device that could be placed aboardOC Transpo buses toautomatically analyze road conditions through asensor that monitors bumps and jolts.