Craters ahead? Plug potholes into an app

Bring on the potholes. The freeze and thaw of winter inevitably results in a rash of suspension-rattling, tire-popping, bone-jarring craters. But now you can fight back with one more tool: your smartphone.

Pothole Alert, from Cab Match L.L.C., is a free application for iPhones and Android devices that is ridiculously simple to use for reporting potholes to local authorities and a website that logs and maps pothole locations.

Launched last year in Washington, D.C., the app's coverage is now available in parts of 30 states, including some of North Jersey; on state roads throughout Pennsylvania; city streets in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and county-maintained roads in Montgomery County.

Your smartphone must have GPS function for the app to work. When you load it for the first time, the app asks for your e-mail address. After that, if you spot a pothole, just open the app and tap the screen twice to generate a pothole report.

After your double tap, you'll be instructed to check your e-mail for a message from SaveMyTire.com. The "pothole report" message will ask you to preview a map showing your pothole location, and then to either tap a link to confirm your report or, if the map is not correct, tap a different link to cancel your report and start over.

Confirmed reports go into the SaveMyTire.com database and are e-mailed to the local city, county or state road department.

Pothole Alert was developed by Minh Tran, a Washington-area dentist who grew up in Montgomery County and went to Cheltenham High School and Temple University's dental school.

He spends his spare time inventing, "and I hate potholes," Tran told me. "They take up our time, and they're dangerous." Tran said the app can work with any government that provides an e-mail address for pothole reporting, and he's hoping to extend coverage across the United States.

His is by far not the only pothole app.

SeeClickFix is free, also for Android and Apple, and uses social media to spread the word and generate pressure for action on any sort of municipal issue, including potholes, broken streetlights or a messy neighbor's yard.

Philadelphia accepts alerts from both Pothole Alert and SeeClickFix.

Many municipalities have their own websites and apps that can be used to report potholes and other problems, but they're city-specific. Another free app, Pothole Scout, by TouchCurrent Software L.L.C., logs potholes anywhere from an iPhone, but doesn't report them to authorities.