Pot Holes & Road Safety

[Olivera]

Up here near Glasgow we've had an exceptional level of rainfall for the past 4 or 5 months. As a result the crumbling road surfaces have almost disintegrated altogether. Every road is now a collection of potholes, ruts, gouges, bumps and sunken/raised manhole covers.

Consequently I now find myself spending an increasing amount of time scouring the road surface ahead for impending craters. When one is spotted I then have to plot and execute a maneuver around it. Avoiding imperfections in the road has always been an accepted part of driving, but the UK road network is now in such a state that a large part of the journey is spent monitoring and avoiding serious flaws in the road surface.

Surely the amount of time and concentration which drivers now have to spend analysing the road surface is a serious safety concern? Furthermore, surely forcing drivers to take a non-optimal driving line due to road flaws is also a serious safety concern?

I fear that although damage to vehicles caused by potholes can be easily quantified, the lives lost due to concentrating and dodging poor road surfaces cannot.

[justinp1]

Ohh, how selfish, thinking of your own personal safety when you pay your road tax...

Just think of the carbon next time...

What you have paid has allowed three Brazillian cows to fart some more to make up for it, surely that is more important than using road tax actually on the road..!?

[streaky]

I bet the roads around the scameras are sufficiently good to facilitate revenue generation - Streaky

[bigdods]

You can report the potholes , IIRC most local councils have a web based reporting system.

Doesnt mean they will fix them though.

I have an intimate knowledge of all the dips and holes around here when driving the Chim, so I know there are is one place where I have to take a sweeping uphill blind bend on the wrong side of the road (50 limit), one place where 3/4 of the way down a long straight at the bottom of a hill in an NSL I have to slow down to <40 and another left right bend combination in an NSL where I have to be doing <30. Many times I have come close to being rear ended even though I gently shed speed using the brakes, people just dont expect you to slow down.

[safespeed]

Olivera said:

I fear that although damage to vehicles caused by potholes can be easily quantified, the lives lost due to concentrating and dodging poor road surfaces cannot.

I'm quite sure you're right. These sorts of problems are extremely hard to quantify.

Also be aware of: www.4callum.com

Callum died after his scooter hit a sunken manhole cover. His mum Roseanne is campaigning with great dignity and utter selflessness. She turned up at Safe Speed and posted this: www.safespeed.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11781

[fluffnik]

safespeed said:

Olivera said:

I fear that although damage to vehicles caused by potholes can be easily quantified, the lives lost due to concentrating and dodging poor road surfaces cannot.

I'm quite sure you're right. These sorts of problems are extremely hard to quantify.

Also be aware of: www.4callum.com

Callum died after his scooter hit a sunken manhole cover.

That's at least one tragic avoidable death directly attributable to poor road maintainance, I wonder how many more are, at least in part, due to the reduced braking performance offered by broken surfaces.

Perhaps if less was spent on illegal wars we'd have better roads.

Elections May...

[countryboy]

I'm sure I've heard before that some councils deliberately ignore pots holes and bad road surfaces because it makes drivers slow down and therefore the roads become safer again.