December 30, 2009
Manholes
Recently there was a letter-to-the-editor in the newspaper and the writer was complaining about the manhole covers in the streets. The pavement around some of holes slopes into the covers, so when you drive across them your shock absorbers get a little exercise. It’s not like you’re hitting a pothole, but there is a bit of a jar. I find it interesting that the gentleman wants to make an issue out of level manholes. Most of us who are familiar with the road usually straddle them, drive around them or just take the bump in stride. It sort of reminds me of the highway to heaven. Most of us would like for the path to be smooth, without obstacles or pitfalls. However the reality is that the road is narrow and believers must learn to be defensive drivers.
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Gail;
-----I agree with the letter writer about the annoyance of manhole covers. Most people would not consider them dangerous, though. But most people don’t ride motorcycles. I learned the danger of round on a camping trip in 1996. The steel fire rings at the Soap Creek camp ground are round and stand about eighteen inches high. I knelt down beside one to split kindling. Choking up on the maul with the handle paralleling the inner part of my forearm, the end of the handle dropped inside the fire ring on the upswing of the last chop I made that evening. It rode around the steel curvature on the downswing, throwing my aim off enough to cleave a bad hole in my left thumb. I never forgot the physics of round. The front tire of a motorcycle is as sensitive to ruts and nonconformities in the road as was that maul handle to the fire ring. If it were to drop into the recess of a manhole at the side, the curvature of the pit could twist it and butter the street with bike and rider. In traffic, that would not be good.
-----Last summer the City resurfaced Colorado Avenue and left the pavement almost four inches above the tops of the manholes. I was shocked to see such a hazard built into a city street. I could not imagine the government being that mindless! So I gave it the benefit of the doubt and figured the concrete spacers for elevating the covers were on back order, or being made, or something. Sure enough, a couple weeks later they were raised safely to street level.
-----Life is complex. Everyone has responsibilities. The driver has the responsibility of safely navigating around hazards. The street keeper has the responsibility of keeping the hazards to a minimum. It follows that increasing the responsibility of one reduces the responsibility of the other. Where the two levels of responsibility intersect is the acceptable depth for a manhole cover. We should all be spanked for not calling this equation by its proper name - love.
-----For that is what love is. It is a system of mutual care and concern by which acceptable levels of responsibility towards one another balance out to an agreeable solution. Each side of the system considers the problems of the other. The principle of diminishing returns makes it far too costly for manhole covers to be perfectly leveled with the street surface at all times. This is for the driver to realize by the respect and honor nature of love for the City. The outright danger of a deeply recessed manhole cover is for the City to realize by the same for the driver. Love for one another then settles on rather affordable, somewhat risky manhole covers.
-----The more we call something by its name, the more the public becomes accustomed to using the concept. Do you want a good example of this principle? How many decades has the F-word been routinely invading our senses? It’s F F here, F F there, F F everywhere anymore. I even found it in the Nov/Dec issue of Biblical Archeology Review! Have you ever noticed the expression you get from little Johnny when you suggest he might leave little Sally’s pants on next Friday night? Alas, if only the L-word were so commonly used!
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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