potholes - drive around or in them

[anonymous-user]

Just an observation really, when I see a pothole or other defect in the road I try and drive around it but I see so many people who make no effort to avoid and just drive straight in them.

I can only assume these people are half blind, asleep at wheel or have been trained by a narsarcistic driving instructor who is currently sitting at home with a cup of tea thinking about the students they have taught bouncing in and out of potholes on the off road assault course we call roads.

[BFG TERRANO]

Avoid wherever possible.

Sadly I know the local pot holes well and subconsciously go wide/tight etc to avoid them, sometimes even after their fixed. I've lost a couple of 205/40/17 to the fking things.

[jamieduff1981]

I was thinking the same myself actually. I always try to avoid if safe to do so. If there's no-one else around I'll happily straddle the centre line or even drive on the wrong side of the road if the surface is particularly bad. To be fair the local authorities up my way aren't that bad at keeping on top of potholes. Or rather, traffic density is possibly more forgiving. Either way, the roads aren't as bad as some I've seen.

[nickfrog]

Stupid question. How can you possibly even see them while on Facebook?

[Spitfire2]

Based on the crater I went through (dark and full of water) which led to 2 wheels needing replaced - avoiding is the best bet where practical.

[Who me ?]

[Tongue in cheek]never mind, given the clear up rate of fixng potholes, local roads will soon be one big pothole. It's one big conspiracy to force low cars off the road and making everyone who wants to get anywhere into high VED rated 4x4 ,and THEN HMG can afford to pay to fix the potholes . [/Tongue in cheek]

[zeduffman]

Avoid where possible, not always easy during peak times though if the hole is in an awkward place as there's always traffic coming the other way.

[AlexRS2782]

The people that tend to continually smack their car through big potholes are the same people who smash over speed humps at full speed, regularly use their wheels as a tool to identify a kerb when parking, and so on. So basically people that don't care too much about a car.

These will then probably be the same people who complain when their car fails its MOT for damage to various suspension components, but yet don't attribute it to their driving.

On a related note a few months ago Surrey Police even commented that they were struggling to identify drink drivers and genuine drivers who were attempting to avoid potholes due to the poor state of some roads in Surrey. Given the state of some of the roads near where I live that have been potholed and tramlined with no attempts by Surrey County Council to fix them, I can't say I blame them for that comment tbh.

Edited by AlexRS2782 on Tuesday 24th June 21:51

[thebigmacmoomin]

Avoid where possible but some are impossible to avoid.

[BGarside]

Around, where possible, but I'm a cyclist so that is already second nature.

The roads are so poor up here I've fitted smaller wheels (to the car) with higher-profile tyres.

Edited by BGarside on Tuesday 24th June 23:49