Aaron Bernard
June 29, 2023

New interactive map crowdsources Montreal’s potholes

If you ride or drive in Montréal, you know all about the city’s pothole problem. While the city works to fill the major crevices dotting the city, a new crowdsourcing platform has been launched to track pothole locations and if and when they get filled.

If you ride or drive in Montréal, you know all about the city’s pothole problem. While the city works to fill the major crevices dotting the city, a new crowdsourcing platform has been launched to track pothole locations and if and when they get filled.

Created by Spatial Media, the company behind the new Metrolinx Ontario Line Interactive Map and the interactive map that showed the environmental impact of the recent Trucker protest in Ottawa, Montreal’s Pothole Map allows users to mark the location of the city’s potholes and upload photos, indicate severity, and provide comments. Users can also indicate when a pothole has been filled, or note when it has not.

“Montreal is a very livable city with extensive bike routes, but the drastic swings in weather and heavy rain in spring do significant damage to the roadways creating dangerous situations for cyclists and vehicles alike,” said Aaron Bernard, Creative Director at Spatial Media. “We created this interactive map to help the cycling community assist their fellow road users by noting potholes so we can report the information to the relevant local authority. The reality is that a number of potholes return year over year after repairs break up. This tool will ensure dangerous road conditions are marked so cyclists and motorists can plan their routes safely.”

The Montreal Pothole map allows users to filter by pothole risk (vehicle or pedestrian/cyclist), cycling routes, and bixi stations.

“Potholes pose a risk for all road users, but cyclists are particularly vulnerable because they have to choose to swing around a pothole to avoid it, potentially changing lanes, or risk damage to their bike by riding it through potholes. Both scenarios create a greater risk to the cyclists and those around them,” said Bernard. “Many on our team are cyclists here at Spatial Media, so we decided we wanted to do something to help the community, and hopefully help create better road conditions for everyone.”

Montréalers can now access the map and upload their images directly into the platform.

Visit the Montréal Pothole Map - https://caportal.ca/spatial/montreal-pothole-map

How to use the Montreal Pothole Map:

  • Users can mark a pothole by opening the map in their phone browser.
  • Once geolocated, click “Singnaler un nid-de-poule” in French or “Make a comment” on the English version and touch the location on the map.
  • Take a photo, or upload a photo, select next and provide details on the pothole. Users can indicate whether it is a vehicle or cyclist/pedestrian risk, or both, and they can also indicate the severity of the pothole.
  • Track the number of pot holes and pot holes fixed over time.
  • Note: Select your preferred language from the right-hand drop-down menu.
from our clients

Spatial are my go-to for solutions

Spatial are my go-to for solutions nobody has dreamt up yet! They have an incredible knack for combining tomorrows tech solutions with creativity, intuitive UX and analytics. The results are engaging interfaces that are impactful and ultimately bridge the gap between project and stakeholders.
66
99
Kate Kernaghan, Company Director, Factotum Communications

They look tremendous, the team have done amazing work!

Our booth very popular - the corflute poster was so incredible to point at our ideas, even at a concept level. Well done to you and the Spatial Media team!
66
99
Rainer Knobloch, Co-Founder - Strategy and Operations

It was a pleasure to work with everyone

Spatial Media masterfully brought our CETO wave energy technology to life and provided a glimpse into how we're harnessing the immense power of the ocean to create clean, renewable electricity. Thank you to Spatial Media - Visual Engagement Solutions for their incredible work on this animation!
66
99
Brighid Jay, Chief Commercial Officer, Carnegie Clean Energy

A very straightforward and fun process for EnergyAustralia

From the initial kick off meeting to the final video, it was a very straightforward and fun process to work with Spatial Media. The final video is outstanding and really helped bring the project to life for our stakeholders. Highly recommended.
66
99
Matt Bruers, Development Director, Wooreen BESS, EnergyAustralia

Top shelf solutions for North East Link project

Spatial Media offers top shelf solutions that help tell the often intricate stories around the construction of major infrastructure. From animations to 3D models, dealing with Spatial has been seamless, and the end results have been first class.
66
99
Jamie Aldridge, Communications Manager, Spark – North East Link – D&C 

Airside Driving Simulator an important part of the training program

It can be storming outside. It could be night time. Any time of the day or night we can create these simulations. It’s very flexible.
66
99
Niel Young, Training Coordinator, Brisbane Airport

Enhancing and innovating communication for Melbourne Airport

Spatial Media is an excellent partner and we’ve been impressed by the work the team has produced for Melbourne Airport to help inform our travellers and community about our terminal upgrades and new runway. They are great to deal with and deliver a polished product with creative thinking and a can-do attitude.
66
99
Andrew Lund, Head of Media and Communications, Melbourne Airport

They are our go to tech-savvy experts with huge amounts of creative flair!

COVID19 social distancing restrictions made having our large scale community event nearly impossible, so we decided to take our face-to-face event online. Spatial worked really closely with us to develop the concept, design and platform that would host our virtual community event. The Spatial team are exceptionally creative, with a fantastic ability to bring your idea to fruition in a way you never thought possible. They made our pen on paper scribble into something that over 45k stakeholders visited online, more than what we could have reached in person. Thank you
66
99
Emily Divitaris, Senior Communications Advisor, WestConnex

Valuable long-term partnership with Brisbane Airport Corporation

The Spatial Media team are always professional, well organised and continuously deliver high quality content pieces on time and on budget. They bring new ideas to the table and constantly adapt to changing requirements. I would highly recommend Spatial Media to all.
66
99
Lauren Graham, Head of Commercial Marketing, Brisbane Airport Corporation