Surrey County Council has been helping to trial an innovative pothole-detecting mobile phone app with road repair experts in the USA.

Street Bump has been pioneered by the Mayor's Office in Boston with the aim of collecting data from motorists when they drive over a pothole.

The app works by using a mobile phone's motion sensor which recognises when a car hits a bump in the road and then transmits that data with a location taken from the phone’s GPS. If a number of people hit a bump in the same spot, the system recognises it as a pothole.


The aim is to create a real-time map of road conditions to catch problems earlier than traditional inspections, with road safety measures such as speed bumps already mapped so they don’t get mistaken for defects.

Richard Bolton, Surrey County Council's Local Highway Services Street Manager, said: "We're always looking to embrace innovation at Surrey County Council, so when we heard about Street Bump we had to take a look. Some of our team downloaded the app for six months and the data they collected was fed back to Boston to help with its testing and development.

"We'll remain in contact with the City of Boston and keep a close eye on how Street Bump develops to see if it could benefit Surrey in the future."

Surrey’s data is helping the app's developers create a system which distinguishes between potholes, manhole covers, drains and other bumps in the road.

(CD/H)