The UKs pothole problem - minus London

[mercalia]

A report by the RAC

seems like Surrey the worst fixer, just 15% fixed

https://discerningcyclist.com/2017/09/report-uks-pothole-problem-statistics-cycling/

[gaz]

Hmm.

There may very well be a report on the UK's pothole problems from the RAC but I don't think it has anything to do with those tables. The article states the table information is from fillthathole.org.uk (Cycling UK backed site) and does not link them to the RAC report.

Whilst it's many years since I last used fillthathole my experience has been that faults reported are passed on the relevant highway authority. However the highway authority does not always inform fillthathole when it fixes a fault.

There's a pothole problem but I wouldn't trust those figures at all.

[fastpedaller]

Anyone here from Northumberland? We went there on holiday (not on bikes), and the roads there are like a lunar landscape in places - I'm glad I wasn't on the bike! Some roads were like a slalom course. I sent a direct note to the relevant Council, highlighting some of the roads involved and was given a case number. When I looked on fillthathole.org, at least one I'd highlighted had been reported several months before and been 'rejected'. I looked at the Council website to get an idea of how 'my' case was progressing but couldn't see any access to it so sent them a note - no response in over a week suggests they don't want to listen to 'complainers' who act as their unpaid road checkers. Pretty typical IME.

[Psamathe]

Hmm.

There may very well be a report on the UK's pothole problems from the RAC but I don't think it has anything to do with those tables. The article states the table information is from fillthathole.org.uk (Cycling UK backed site) and does not link them to the RAC report.

Whilst it's many years since I last used fillthathole my experience has been that faults reported are passed on the relevant highway authority. However the highway authority does not always inform fillthathole when it fixes a fault.

There's a pothole problem but I wouldn't trust those figures at all.

I would agree that the data become totally un-reliable as certainly some councils don't record repairs. Norfolk don't (or didn't a year ago) as I used to go back in and mark potholes I had reported as repaired once I noticed they had been repaired (not 100% but better than nothing) and never once was one of my reports marked as repaired by the Council.

I believe there is some open standard for data exchange for such systems (Open311 ?) but I have no idea how many councils have software supporting it and I don't believe fillthathole.org.uk supports it either.

Ian

[Mick F]

Back when we lived in the West of Scotland, we saw a big difference in the road surface quality from Glasgow City, Dunbartonshire, and Argyll.
Argyll was so much better than Dunbartonshire, and that was even better than Glasgow. You could see and feel the road surface change as you went over the borders.
Could be things have changed these days, since the county boundaries have changed. I'm going back to 1982/3/4 so my info is old info.

We see the same thing now here in Devon/Cornwall.
Devon have much more money to spend on the roads than Cornwall. Living here on the Cornish border and frequently driving - and cycling - into Devon, the differences are marked.

No doubt the monies spent on roads varies from area to area all over the country.

[bertgrower]

I went for a ride in Essex between Epping and Hatfield Broad Oak, the surfaces were excelent except for the road edges in places. I did not see one pothole!

[Psamathe]

Back when we lived in the West of Scotland, we saw a big difference in the road surface quality from Glasgow City, Dunbartonshire, and Argyll.
Argyll was so much better than Dunbartonshire, and that was even better than Glasgow. You could see and feel the road surface change as you went over the borders.
Could be things have changed these days, since the county boundaries have changed. I'm going back to 1982/3/4 so my info is old info.

We see the same thing now here in Devon/Cornwall.
Devon have much more money to spend on the roads than Cornwall. Living here on the Cornish border and frequently driving - and cycling - into Devon, the differences are marked.

No doubt the monies spent on roads varies from area to area all over the country.

I wonder if it is also at least in part the abilities of the Highways for the area. Norfolk pothole repairs are diabolical - very uneven and you have to avoid the repairs as much as the pothole. That said, they have recently purchased a bit of new kit that seems a bit better; the "finish" from the new machine seems to be a fine "surface dressing" except without the corse surface and without all the lose stone. Generally utility company repairs are massively better than Highways efforts/bodges. And in Norfolk they have gone mad Surface Dressing everywhere and it's a disaster. I was on a lane today which was surface dressed earlier this summer and already has some nasty potholes (after just a few weeks!), and last year I was reporting dangerous potholes only a few weeks after the road had been surface dressed. Complete waste of money on many of the roads it is being applied to. I once stopped and chatted to the people carrying out surface dressing on one lane and they were saying how the work they were doing was a complete waste of time as what they were applying it to would fail whatever was (or was not) done.

I used to report loads and loads of potholes. Now I will only report potholes in recently surface dressed roads as, report too many potholes on any other surface and next summer they'll come along and surface dress than road (and ruin it for cycling).

And the money they spend on all this surface dressing means there is less money available for proper repairs that would actually last more than a few weeks.

Ian

[gbnz]

Anyone here from Northumberland? We went there on holiday (not on bikes), and the roads there are like a lunar landscape in places - I'm glad I wasn't on the bike! Some roads were like a slalom course. I sent a direct note to the relevant Council, highlighting some of the roads involved and was given a case number. When I looked on fillthathole.org, at least one I'd highlighted had been reported several months before and been 'rejected'. I looked at the Council website to get an idea of how 'my' case was progressing but couldn't see any access to it so sent them a note - no response in over a week suggests they don't want to listen to 'complainers' who act as their unpaid road checkers. Pretty typical IME.

I am!

As I've posted elsewhere, thanks to the Tour of Britain Northumberland CC swept one local road, replaced a bridge washed out two years ago and even brought a specialist in to return two roads which had been returned to gravel "outback" status, to tarmac . It's incredible; potholes which were there 2-3 years ago were filled in.

This tarmac stuff is amazing. It's smooth, and the bicycle wheels roll along it as if it was a sheet of plastic/plyboard, while retaining grip. It's incredible to think of the advances in science that the 21st century has brought (Nb. Though the local library shows pictures of those gravel roads being converted to tarmac back in 1921).

To be fair, over the border in Scotland or down South in Durham, they have stretches of road which are pothole free for several miles (Nb. On returning to Northumberland 9 years ago, I realised after a couple of years that my 24/28 spoke wheels and 20-25mm tyres would have to be changed to 36 spoke wheels and 35mm tyres)

[fastpedaller]

I wonder if it is also at least in part the abilities of the Highways for the area. Norfolk pothole repairs are diabolical - very uneven and you have to avoid the repairs as much as the pothole.

I used to report loads and loads of potholes. Now I will only report potholes in recently surface dressed roads as, report too many potholes on any other surface and next summer they'll come along and surface dress than road (and ruin it for cycling).

And the money they spend on all this surface dressing means there is less money available for proper repairs that would actually last more than a few weeks.

Ian

I also live in Norfolk, and yes it's pretty bad (though it would seem from my recent holiday in Northumberland) better than some. This surface dressing really is rubbish (if done poorly). I noticed in 2012 it had improved, but seems to have gone bad again unfortunately. What riles me (apart from not filling potholes before chucking the dressing all over) is that they just then leave it for ever, so on single width roads, it just leaves a pile of grit in the centre for as long as 2 years. They should sweep the road after a period of 'flattening'. But do they listen to those who pay their wages? No of course not

[old_windbag]

Anyone here from Northumberland?

Another here.

The roads around here are pretty bad but on some there has been a chip seal blitz over the past 2 years or so. But the standard of this is very variable so perhaps different contractors, seems odd. The tour of britain did, as gbnz mentions, mean that all road junction mouths on route and laybys were swept free of gravel plus some resurfacing, as happened 2 years ago to roads that had been in disrepair for more than 12 yrs. I used to use fillthathole i put quite a lot of reports in but as much as repairs were done they were just cursory bodges upon previous bodge. Nothing done concienstiously or professionally plus their 40mm depth rule meant they'd selectively fill defects. There are some very bomb cratered sections of road, some are accidents waiting to happen especially in rain. I love my road bike but there are few routes that don't end off beating you up. Unfortunately i too am thinking of fatter tyre all purpose bikes, we shouldn't have to but are being forced from a comfort perspective due to surfaces ridden.

When i see all the money for londons superhighways etc we really are outsiders. Can we become part of scotland please.

[Jdsk]

NB date.

Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey by the Asphalt Industry Alliance:
https://www.asphaltuk.org/alarm-survey-page/

Commentary from Cycling UK:
https://www.cyclinguk.org/news/new-surv ... l-roads-uk

Jonathan

[pete75]

Maybe it's the state of the roads that makes so many folk favour an SUV over a car.

[reohn2]

Minor roads are definitely getting much worse with repairs being uneven and proud of existing carriageway.
Even A road repairs are poor and I'm noticing potholes appearing in NSL dualcarriageways and motorways,some quite large,taking weeks to repair.

[Psamathe]

....
Whilst it's many years since I last used fillthathole my experience has been that faults reported are passed on the relevant highway authority. However the highway authority does not always inform fillthathole when it fixes a fault.
....

When I used to use FillThatHole the Highways Authorities Norfolk as well as Norwich never updated reports which makes something of a farce of the statistical data from the system. FixMyStreet is better as it e-mails you a few weeks after submitting each report asking if it's been fixed with options to ask again is you are not sure. So at least it is making a good effort to keep updated with fixes.

Ian

[chris_suffolk]

Just got back from a stay in Lancashire - worst roads I have ever seen by some margin. I've seen smoother ploughed fields! Drop over the border into Cumbria and the surface improved several fold. All the local cyclists said the same. Don't know why they are so bad.