# Industry News POTHOLE MANIA ONE IN TWO HAVE EXPERIENCED DAMAGE DUE TO POTHOLES,



## WHIZZER (Oct 25, 2005)

A survey conducted by road safety charity IAM RoadSmart has found that its members are increasingly disillusioned with the state of the roads in the UK - and feel the Government is not doing nearly enough to tackle the problem.










The survey of more than 7,000 IAM RoadSmart members found that the majority think that our roads have become much worse in recent years, that there are many more potholes than ever before, and that they have to swerve to avoid potholes on every journey.

Some 47% - over 3,400 respondents - say they have experienced damage to their car, commercial vehicle, motorbike or bicycle or personal injury as a result of hitting a pothole.

Around 90% have spotted a deterioration of some level in the roads they use with just over 50% rating the state of their roads as 'much worse' in the past three years and 38% rating them 'worse.'

Some 81% - close to 6,000 people - say they have noticed 'many more' potholes in the past three years, adding in the 13% who have seen 'a few more,' that gives a total of 94% who report more potholes.

Over 56% say they have to take avoiding action on every journey to dodge potholes, while 27% say they have to steer around a pothole every day.

While a third of IAM RoadSmart members are willing to consider new funding ideas to help improve our roads, half were against a 2p increase in fuel duty and most of those were strongly opposed.

Mike Quinton, Chief Executive Officer of IAM RoadSmart, said: "IAM RoadSmart is deeply concerned at the safety implications of drivers having to swerve to avoid potholes as well as the high level of damage and injuries revealed by our survey.

"We are looking to the authorities to work together to produce a long term and sustainable plan to reduce the backlog of road maintenance before yet another damaging winter sets things back even further.

"The figures from our survey are compelling and it is increasingly clear that those who use the roads on a daily basis are pretty much united on this one - enough time has now passed for a long term plan to be in place and for work to have started. As our survey has shown, this is now the motoring public's number one priority."


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## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

I'm in for the people about to moan about paying their 'road tax' and how it's not getting used....:doublesho:doublesho

:tumbleweed:


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## wish wash (Aug 25, 2011)

Even when I've seen them do the repairs, it seems a 5 minute job that barely lasts a winter.


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## SadlyDistracted (Jan 18, 2013)

Given the billions of £s fleeced (nay extorted) from motorists I see no reason we should have to pay any more to fix the neglected roads. Its about time that the billions are used to reinstate the roads to a decent condition before they get even more 3rd world.


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## Tyrefitter (Feb 13, 2010)

Hope the government don’t see this,,they will put 2p tax on & not do anything with the roads 

Andy


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## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

I'm not convinced the roads are much worse. There has always been lots of potholes. 

I do wonder how much the fact that more cars have big wheels and low profile tyres add to the probability of damage? 

I've damaged a few wheels over the years, but they've all been a few years ago.


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## ncd (Dec 12, 2005)

The harsh winter we had probably didn't help with roads either. 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk


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## Darlofan (Nov 24, 2010)

Kerr said:


> I'm not convinced the roads are much worse. There has always been lots of potholes.
> 
> I do wonder how much the fact that more cars have big wheels and low profile tyres add to the probability of damage?
> 
> I've damaged a few wheels over the years, but they've all been a few years ago.


That and a combination of how people drive. Wife and I drive for work so each doing 20 odd thousand miles a year. Have done for over 10 years so close to 300k miles of motoring, neither of us have had pothole damage, tyres, wheels, tracking, suspension etc. We live rural too so lanes, roads round here are last to be repaired. What we tend to do though is leave a gap between us and car in front, that way you tend to spot pot holes. We're constantly tail gated at 50 ish coming up to ours and as you avoid a pot hole you see the car behind drive right through it or swerve drastically trying to avoid it!!


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## liamsxa (Nov 3, 2007)

Roads up here in Scotland central belt are massively worse from 3-5 years ago!


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## liamsxa (Nov 3, 2007)

I've never experienced big potholes on a motorway until this past 18 months,


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## andy__d (Jun 27, 2018)

wish wash said:


> Even when I've seen them do the repairs, it seems a 5 minute job that barely lasts a winter.


pouring a pile of chippings in and a smidge of tar isnt exactly a repair ,swap "fix" for bodge :driver:

the road leading to this one, the join between the two sides, isnt there , for about a foot either side of the joint, and approx 30foot long, and thats the Smaller of the defects in the road, ,, council couldnt give a hoot even though that road is now a bus route and they are causing more damage and accelerating the already ruined sections of surface left.

the gov gouge the a%%% out of drivers , using Any half assssssed excuse and they will carry on, until the costs of paying the claims for damages gets to more than the cost of "fixing" the road (i dont mean Really fixing them, as in do it properly i mean send a bloke round with a bucket of chippings + cup of tar to bodge it  )


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## nbray67 (Mar 22, 2012)

ncd said:


> The harsh winter we had probably didn't help with roads either.
> 
> Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk


They suffer from more harsh winters in Scandinavia and my guess is, I don't know, their roads are a whole lot better than ours.


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