After record rains, more rocky roads

Thousands of new potholes in L.A. could be costly hazards for drivers and the city.

- ALEX WIGGLESWORTH

LOS ANGELES city crews are working seven days a week to tackle a surge of complaints about potholes.

Jin Shin has come across some monster potholes over the last couple of weeks, including one in Koreatown that rattled his car with a sickening thump and another near the airport where its depth was obscured by water.

"The car just tilted in way, way deep," said the 31-year-old, who runs the TikTok account Dash Cam of L.A. Luckily, Shin was going slow enough that he didn’t sustain any damage this time. He learned his lesson about a decade ago when a pothole blew out one of his shocks near an entrance to the 2 Freeway, costing him about $2,500 to repair.

Born and raised in L.A., Shin said that learning to negotiate pockmarked pavement is part of every Angeleno’s driving education. "Basically, we learn a lesson after our cars break down," he said. "We remember where the potholes are on each street. That’s our way of survival."

With more than 14 inches of rain falling on downtown L.A. since October roughly 99% of what the city typically sees during the entire rainy season that ends in March there have been a lot of new potholes for drivers to map out on their daily commutes.

Officials can’t say exactly how many potholes there are out there just the number of those that have been reported. But the record rains have left the region’s roads awash in them, and crews are trying to keep up. The rocky conditions of roads have become a hot topicon L.A. social media, as motorists share their stories of direct hits and near misses.

“LA potholes got me looking like I hit a dpedes- trian,” one TikTok poster recently wrote over a photo of a sedan with a bent and rimless wheel.

The situation might end up costing taxpayers as motorists file claims for damages with the city.