Sidewalk golf cart cruises Sudbury walkways looking for trouble spots

The City of Greater Sudbury is trying to make walking in the city a smoother experience.

For the third time the city has hired Montreal-based GIE Technologies to monitor sidewalk conditions to help prioritize the city's repair budget.

The city's general manager of infrastructure services said the firm does sidewalk monitoring every two years to pinpoint areas where improvements are needed.

"If we based our data on too-old information, we might be investing monies into areas that are less important than the areas that require the most amount of money," Tony Cecutti said.

A Sudbury resident who is trying to raise awareness about pedestrian safety and accessibility applauds the program, but said more money should be spent fixing uneven concrete and crumbling curbs.

"I've seen people in motor scooters and in wheelchairs get stuck ... where their wheels are just spinning because the gap is so huge," Matt Alexander said.

"The concrete curbs tend to degrade a lot more because people park on them, or just from buses and heavy traffic going over them. So having let's say a bike lane between the curb and traffic, for instance, or a raised bike lane, would do a lot to prevent that kind of damage from happening."

GIE Technologies has been monitoring road conditions for Sudbury since 2007.

Employee Hedi Romdhani is helping to compile the information needed for its reports by driving an electric golf cart along Greater Sudbury sidewalks.

Romdhani's ride is equipped with a video camera and motion sensors to find deflections in the pavement.

"I'm taking pictures of the sidewalks to see if they're good," she said.

The information is then analyzed to produce a report on each block.

The city expects a full report on sidewalk conditions this fall. 

Watch a video of the cart in action