I wonder about grip properties, particularly for motorcycles while cornering. A bag that shifts position, even a little, may be dangerously destabilizing. As it is, manhole covers need to be avoided when wet (and best avoided in sharp cornering in the dry too).
Or cyclists! I wonder what would happen if a relatively slow moving, thin wheel rolled over this? I'm worried that a cyclist would sink in to the material, and be well on their way to a header.
Maybe it would work better on an interstate, particularly flat sections, where there are no cyclists, and vehicles are constantly moving forward at high rates of speeds? Warnings could be posted to warn motorcycles not to swerve (e.g. like uneven surface warnings).
And to deter slow-pokes, entire sections of highway can be filled 100 feet deep with the stuff. If anyone slows down too much, the highway sarlacc acquires a tasty meal.
I was wondering the same thing. I was a little concerned about the adhesive fabric cover that they put over the bags. What happens if that happens to slip underneath your motorcycle tire halfway through a turn?
IN the video the adhesive fabric moves way to much for me to be comfortable riding over it.
I was also surprised that they just went out and threw it in a pothole in Cleveland somewhere. Is that allowed? Real world live tests of prototype products on the street.
The article states at the end that the city has offered to help them test it. It is pure speculation but maybe they had already helped by giving permission to test on the potholes mentioned earlier in the article.
The article mentions that it is intended as a stop-gap measure until proper repairs can be performed. So I think that as long as it is less destabilizing than the pothole itself, it serves its purpose.
I'd be less concerned except that they take pains to say that the bags should be coloured the same as the road, so that drivers don't take any action to avoid them. But motorcyclists depend on road surface that looks good, being good.
