Pothole tire damage in New York: the 2026 record year

2026 is the biggest pothole year New York City has on its current books, by a distance, and March 2026 is the biggest single month in the whole of it.

Those are counted numbers, not an impression, and the rest of this page is about what they do and do not prove.

The counts

Every figure here was computed against NYC Open Data resource erm2-nwe9, which is now titled "311 Service Requests from 2020 to Present" — not "from 2010", as it is still cited almost everywhere. At read time on 2026-09-20 it held 22,530,629 rows, its earliest created date was 1 January 2020, its latest was 19 September 2026, and it had last been refreshed at 01:38 UTC that morning. Nothing about New York 311 potholes before 2020 can be sourced from it.

Street Condition requests with the descriptor "Pothole", by calendar year:

Year	Requests
2020	30,585
2021	44,583
2022	49,677
2023	36,257
2024	38,801
2025	38,438
2026, to 19 September	66,545

Like for like on 1 January to 19 September: 2021 35,328; 2022 39,777; 2023 28,871; 2024 30,990; 2025 30,472; 2026 66,545. That is 2.01 times the 2021-2025 mean of 33,088 for the same part of the year (DERIVED: 66,545 ÷ 33,088).

Now rank every year-month in the dataset by count. There are 81 of them, running from January 2020 to September 2026. The top of that table:

1. March 2026 — 22,790
2. April 2026 — 11,421
3. May 2026 — 7,150
4. March 2021 — 6,517

March 2026 is the largest single month in the entire erm2-nwe9 record, ranked against all 81 year-months present in that dataset, which begins in January 2020 and has nothing earlier. It is 4.21 times the 2021-2025 March mean of 5,414 (DERIVED: 22,790 ÷ 5,414) and 3.50 times the next largest March on the same record (DERIVED: 22,790 ÷ 6,517).

The 2026 month-by-month shape: January 3,218; February 4,618; March 22,790; April 11,421; May 7,150; June 6,077; July 4,661; August 4,292; September to the 19th 2,318.

The counting trap, stated plainly

There are three pothole-bearing complaint types in NYC 311, not one. Over 2021 to 2025 inclusive: "Street Condition" with descriptor "Pothole", 207,756 rows; "Highway Condition" with "Pothole - Highway", 7,464; and "Bridge Condition" with "Pothole", 740. A query on the first alone misses 8,204 further pothole reports (DERIVED: 7,464 + 740).

Every figure on this page uses the Street Condition series only, and says so. We are not going to mix the three and we are not going to compare our number to somebody else's without knowing which of the three they used.

What a 311 count measures, and what it does not

It measures reports. That is not the same as holes.

A 311 count mixes how much damage there is with how likely people are to call about it. An intake change, an outreach campaign, a new app flow or a mayoral pothole programme can each move the number without a single extra hole appearing in the road. So we will tell you how much the reporting rose and we will not tell you why, because we have no NYC DOT or DSNY statement explaining it and we are not going to guess at one.

Two things that are true about last winter, stated separately

One. The 2025-26 season brought 43.5 inches of snow to Central Park, the highest of the eleven seasons from 2015-16 to 2025-26 at that station, and 1.69 times the 1991-2020 normal of 25.8 inches (DERIVED: 43.5 ÷ 25.8). The run of eleven, in inches: 32.8, 30.2, 40.9, 20.6, 4.8, 38.6, 17.8, 2.3, 7.5, 12.9, 43.5. The city's own parking notices record the same winter: NYC DOT suspended alternate-side parking from 28 January through 14 February 2026 "to facilitate ongoing snow operations", eighteen consecutive days (DERIVED by counting the dates in that notice), and again for a day on 2 March.

Two. 2026 holds the largest pothole month and the largest partial year in the 311 record.

Those are two measured series about the same winter. We are deliberately not joining them. Nothing we read says the snow caused the reports, and a pothole count is a reporting measure. Put them side by side and draw your own conclusion; we are not selling you ours as a finding.

The counter-intuitive fact about New York and freeze-thaw

If you have read that New York's potholes come from unusually severe freeze-thaw cycling, the data does not support it.

Central Park's 1991-2020 normals record 65.6 days a year with a minimum at or below 32F and 17.6 days that never rise above freezing. Subtract, and you get 48.0 freeze-thaw crossing days a year (DERIVED: 65.6 − 17.6). Counted a second way, directly from the daily record over the 10,958 days of 1991 to 2020, 1,541 days had a minimum at or below 0C and a maximum above it — 51.4 a year. The two methods agree within 3.4 days.

On the same normals-subtraction method used across this programme: New York 48.0, Chicago about 79, Pittsburgh about 82, Denver about 136. New York City has the lowest freeze-thaw exposure of the four northern metros this programme has measured. The ranking population is those four cities and no others.

Where the crossings do sit, counted from the Central Park daily record and averaged over 1991-2020: February 13.4, January 13.1, December 10.7, March 9.7, November 3.4, April 1.0, and none at all from May through October. February is the peak, not January.

And the complaint peak arrives a month later. Averaged over the five complete years 2021-2025, Street Condition pothole requests run: January 19,302; February 21,444; March 27,070; April 23,705; May 19,848; June 19,660; July 14,279; August 12,588; September 11,832; October 11,327; November 10,595; December 16,106. The March peak is 2.55 times the November trough (DERIVED: 27,070 ÷ 10,595). That the two series line up a month apart is a correlation between two measured things, not a demonstrated mechanism.

Where the reports come from

By borough, Street Condition potholes 2021-2025: Queens 79,420; Brooklyn 49,133; Manhattan 26,137; Bronx 24,725; Staten Island 23,416, plus 4,301 with a blank borough and 624 marked "Unspecified".

Against ACS 2020-2024 county populations, per 1,000 residents: Staten Island 47.3, Queens 34.2, Brooklyn 18.7, Bronx 17.6, Manhattan 16.0 (all DERIVED: borough count ÷ borough population × 1,000). Staten Island is first of the five boroughs on requests per resident, at 2.96 times the Manhattan rate (DERIVED). It holds 5.8 percent of the city's population and 11.3 percent of its pothole requests; Manhattan holds 19.2 percent of the population and 12.6 percent of the requests (all four DERIVED from the borough counts above and the ACS county populations).

Say the caveat with the number: that is a reporting rate, not a pavement condition measurement. It mixes how many holes there are with how likely residents are to call.

At ZIP level, ranking all 224 non-null incident ZIP values present over 2021-2025: 1st 10306 Staten Island 4,101; 2nd 10314 Staten Island 4,075; 3rd 10312 Staten Island 3,351; 4th 11101 Long Island City 3,247; 5th 11385 Glendale and Ridgewood 3,066; 6th 10309 Staten Island 2,417; 7th 11434 Jamaica 2,410; 8th 11377 Woodside 2,398; 9th 11413 Springfield Gardens 2,347; 10th 11234 Marine Park 2,234. Four of the top six are on Staten Island. For 2026 to date the head of the table changes: 11101 first with 1,251, then 10306 1,194, 11385 1,170, 10314 1,145, 11377 1,142.

What the city repaired, which is a different dataset entirely

NYC Open Data resource x9wy-ing4, "Street Pothole Work Orders - Closed", last updated 31 August 2026, holds 410,488 rows. By borough over the whole record: Queens 135,479; Brooklyn 110,463; Manhattan 56,355; Bronx 54,738; Staten Island 53,453. By year closed: 2019 26,135; 2020 17,318; 2021 21,822; 2022 20,581; 2023 16,943; 2024 16,389; 2025 16,209; 2026 18,438 so far, against a dataset last refreshed on 31 August 2026. The 2026 partial year is already above every complete year since 2022.

A work order is not a pothole. Each row carries an on-street name with a from-street and a to-street, so it describes a segment of roadway that crews worked. Do not divide one dataset by the other, and be suspicious of anyone who does.

What a pothole does to a tire

A hard edge at speed pinches the tire between the road and the rim. Three outcomes, and New York's inspection rules describe all three:

A sidewall bulge. Broken cords inside, air pushing the carcass out. 15 NYCRR 79.21(c) rejects a tire with "visible bumps, bulges or knots indicating partial failure or separation of the tire structure." Not repairable, ever. Bulge in a tire sidewall and bubble in the tread.

A cut or exposed structure. The same section rejects a tire with "a cut in excess of one inch in any direction and deep enough the reach the body cords" or with "any portion of the ply or cord structure exposed."

A bent or cracked wheel. Often the real cause of a leak that nobody can find in the tire. Slow leak repair in New York and tire losing air with no nail in it.

If the car is thumping or the steering has picked up a vibration since the hit, thumping noise from a tire and humming or roaring that changes with speed are the diagnostic pages.

When to expect the season

Content aside, the practical version for a driver: the reports climb from a November trough through December and January, peak in March, and fall away through May. The snow and the crossings peak in February. If you are planning a tire budget in this city, the money lands in late winter.

Our price

Impact damage is often a replacement rather than a repair, and we will tell you which at the visit. A mobile puncture repair is $145 for the first tire and $50 for each additional tire in the same visit, with no separate call-out fee. If the tire is not repairable you pay for the inspection and not for the repair, and you decide whether to replace. We supply and fit the replacement at the same address in the same visit; we do not fit customer-supplied tires and we do not sell used tires.

Failed a New York inspection on tread · What tire repair costs in New York · Mobile tire repair in New York · Repair or replace · How many tires do I need · Our New York service area

Questions people ask

• Was 2026 really the worst pothole year? It is the largest in NYC 311 resource erm2-nwe9, which begins in January 2020: 66,545 Street Condition pothole requests to 19 September, 2.01 times the 2021-2025 mean for the same window (DERIVED). March 2026, at 22,790, is the largest of the 81 year-months in that dataset. Nothing before 2020 is in it.
• Did the snow cause it? We do not know and we will not say. The 2025-26 season was the snowiest of the last eleven at Central Park at 43.5 inches, and 2026 holds the pothole record. Those are two separate measured series, and a 311 count measures reporting as well as damage.
• Is New York's freeze-thaw unusually bad? No. Central Park gives 48.0 crossing days a year on the normals method (DERIVED: 65.6 − 17.6), against about 79 in Chicago, 82 in Pittsburgh and 136 in Denver on the same method. Of the four northern metros this programme has measured, New York is the mildest.
• Which part of the city reports the most? Per resident, Staten Island at 47.3 requests per 1,000 against Manhattan's 16.0 (DERIVED). In raw count, Queens, with 79,420 of the 207,756 requests in 2021-2025. Both are reporting rates, not measurements of the pavement.
• Can a pothole-damaged tire be repaired? A tread-area puncture, sometimes. A sidewall bulge, never — and New York rejects the car for it at inspection.
• The wheel looks fine but the tire keeps going down. Bent or cracked rims are common after an impact and are invisible until the tire comes off. That is what the inspection at the visit is for.
• Which month should I plan for? March, on five years of data: it is the peak month of the year for pothole reports, at 2.55 times the November trough (DERIVED).