CityLogix scooters assess London's sidewalk conditions

LONDON, Ohio (WCMH) — Scooters are being used to help assess the condition of every sidewalk in the city of London.

"I’ve gone through the process of grading roads to where we know which roads are the worst, and we need to start working on them right now. So this is just like that, but for sidewalks," Mayor Patrick Closser said.

The scooters are operated by employees from a company called CityLogix. They are mounted with cameras and record video as they ride on the sidewalks. Then they go over them again and take pictures of problem spots.

“That way not only do they have a spot on the map but they actually can hit that spot on the map, pull up a picture that shows, oh yeah, that's a two-foot uplift that we need to fix," said David Teetrs, a Senior Survey Team Leader with CityLogix.

He said all the information is sent back to their office. Then a report is put together to let the city know where fixes should be made first and what areas are ok.

“That’s why we brought them out, because we want to get a real good map of what's going on. So then we can come up with a game plan on how to fix them," Closser said. “They’re able to GIS and map them faster and be able to do what they need to do in a much faster time than what they would have to do if they walked.”

Closser said the city is paying CityLogix about $50,000 for all the work.

“The safety of our citizens is always the top priority,  making sure we have safe access for everyone, especially those that are ADA, and we need to make these things compliant. I think it's money well spent," he said.

The CityLogix employees and their scooters are expected to be in town for a few weeks. Closser said he expects the city will get the report from the company in the winter, then make a plan for work in the spring.