Potholes are a major source of concern for travelers in Sri Lanka, as we have mentioned earlier. In Panama, the problem was so bad that an advertising agency and a TV show worked together for a solution. They placed pressure pads in potholes; whenever a driver hit a pothole, it hit the pressure pad, which in turn tweeted to local authorities about the fact that a pothole needed to be repaired. Take a look yourself:
This is a genius idea and an effective one as well. The tweeting potholes have been in operation since late May It was reported that 30% of all potholes were attended to as of June 14th. Needless to say, mounting local pressure forced the local authorities in Panama to respond and it appears they have taken necessary action thus far. We could easily see something like this becoming a hit in Sri Lanka, given the abundance of potholes in the country.
Another area which we feel has potential could be carpooling: a large number of vehicles have registered in the last few months as a result of the government offering lower tariffs to vehicles which are under 1000cc, lower petrol prices and improved access to credit at reasonable rates. In this regard, perhaps social media could be used to alert people about possible carpooling opportunities in their local area. We already do it for children via school vans, so perhaps having office vans on a large scale is a possible way to cut down on the ever increasing number of vehicles in the country,
Pivoting to the larger point at hand, we’ve seen social media make waves in Sri Lanka. It has brought upon national attention to important issues such as harassment, corruption and even forced companies to ban some of their ads. What aspects of transportation in Sri Lanka would you like to see solved by social media? Tell us in the comments!
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