Potholes, potholes, we need to sort your potholes, potholes

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Local elections and there’s a lot of talk about potholes.

Maybe I’ve lived a charmed life but potholes aren’t something that bother me. I’ve never seen a pothole that caused me lots of concern; I’ve just driven round them if they’re large and obvious.

Local politicians are obsessed with them though. Am I out of the loop here. Is everyone else kept up at night by potholes?

AIBU?

They’re bad near me.

several accidents recently one fatal on a stretch that had bad potholes

council did resurface it after the fatal accident

The Transport Secretary’s own car was towed after hitting a big pot hole. It’s a massive issue all over the country. People wouldn’t be talking about them if it they weren’t an issue. And where councils aren’t affording/prioritising the basics people feel very mugged off.

They're a problem where I live. V annoying when a wheel crashes into a deep, not so obvious one, then the fear of whether it's a puncture this time or not. I wish my local politicians were obsessed by them!

You clearly don’t live somewhere where almost every road is full of huge craters.

It’s really bad in Birmingham. Even main roads that run through high streets.

16 years of austerity and cuts to local services, even caught up with roads and drivers (usually protected) in the end.

I live in rural central Scotland and there are so many now it’s getting ridiculous. Literally today we’ve had our second completely flat tyre within a few months from bumping into a pothole. Someone came towards me too far over up a winding hill and I ended up in a pothole. I have to be constantly vigilant watching the side of the road, or right in the middle if water has been washing off the hills and causing damage to the road. Drives me absolutely nuts.

It's a daily, visual reminder that there is no money for basic reminder that there isn't enough money for basic infrastructure. And that's aside from the irritation of having to constantly slow down and drive around them.

Are you a driver? If you are, I can't believe you aren't bothered by them. Nationally our roads are a disgrace.

I hit a pothole last week. That hole cost me nearly £600 at the garage.

It must be costing drivers around the UK thousands to keep repairing their cars. Not to mention how dangerous they are. Cars constantly driving around holes, cyclists are swerving into the middle of the road, and these potholes are being 'fixed' temporarily and that must also be costing the taxpayer thousands for repeated filling of potholes that are back to a huge hole a week later.

They are horrible where I am. I had two completely destroyed tyres in two days. £420.

They're endemic around here. A local B road has a patch of failed road surface so rutted that you need to drop to around 15 mph to progress through it, if you would like to maintain intact tyres. It will allegedly be repaired over summer.

We have never lost a tyre to an individual potholes (many neighbours have) but we replace on average one corner per winter from irreparable slow leaks as they slice up your tyres going through them repeatedly.

Loads of them where I live and I live/work in two towns 30 miles apart- terrible in both places. Motorway okay.

Loads around here, so dangerous. Either causing you to swerve to avoid them or drop to 10mph so as not to fuck your tyres up. Obviously the swerving can’t always be done depending on oncoming traffic on the other side of the road or cyclists on the inside of the lane.
To be fair to the council they do seem to have patched up some but by no means most.

Our local Reform council made a massive deal out of their plans to fix the potholes before they were elected.

Their priorities obviously shifted after they came to power as we seem to have more potholes now than ever!

When I cycle the potholes feel life-threatening. I think they matter. They are also symbolic of the neglected fabric of our infrastructure resulting from cuts in local expenditure.

I cycle quite a bit and they're really scary. Hitting a big pothole on a bike could be fatal, as could swerving round one if there's a car alongside you.

I was in France recently where the main roads were smooth. As soon as we drove out of the Channel Tunnel terminal in the UK, it was so obvious how awful our roads are in comparison.

I live in the same area and it’s horrific. ‘Driving around them’ isn’t always an option OP! We have spent £750 on new tyres all due to potholes over the last 15 months, they are utterly horrendous!!

You are just lucky OP. It’s a real problem near me. The edges of some carriageways are practically destroyed. Some portholes in the middle of the road could easily fit my 14 size arse. And yes they are visible but most of the time it’s not possible to drive around them because of the oncoming traffic.

I regularly need to travel on 2 main roads to my 2 nearest towns. These are both the only practical routes and main roads with heavy traffic (including lots of lorries etc) through our area and onwards to major cities. One of these roads is tricky at the best of times because of the landscape (twisting around hills, sheer drops at the side of the road in places). Over at least the last year both of these roads have almost constantly had huge pot holes that are frequently impossible to avoid without going on to the other side of the road. Where these are on blind bends (common on the twisty road) this means no safe way around. When it rains it's impossible to tell how deep these are and if it's dark they are hard to see. They are patched up, but as soon as one is covered another appears and the repairs are clearly not very good as they often re-appear as soon as it's wet again. As well as the frequent damage to cars (I've had 2 damaged wheels and hardly know anyone who hasn't had some damage) it's incredibly dangerous. Even when not actively avoiding a hole, drivers are having to pay far more attention to the road surface and whether there are holes than they should need to on main roads. Which means less attention on traffic etc. It must be even worse for cyclists/motor cyclists.

So yes, a major safety issue here.
[Reform made a big noise about this at our last local election. They now control the council. It has not got better. I am not at all surprised.]

You're just lucky.

They're horrendous here - I've busted two tyres on them over the years and I know people who have really damaged their cars. They can't always be avoided and aren't always visible until it's too late (either you hit them, hit an oncoming car avoiding them or break and cause a pile up behind you).

Come to my area. Potholes are awful, deep and wide and so dangerous on narrow country roads so you cant always miss them or see them.
DH had to fix tyres and something to do with suspension (i think) as a result
And ironically a reform council but listed as one of the worst areas for potholes

Huge issue where I live in South East England and v v dangerous, not to mention expensive as it’s almost weekly on our local FB groups that people are posting about tyre damage by some of the worst ones. i’ve literally been to developing countries in South America and Asia with better roads.

They're a danger to pedestrians. The council have turned down the streetlights to save money so the potholes are easy to trip into if crossing after dark.

I seem to get them fixed much faster when I point out they're a potential broken ankle or cycle accident.

I genuinely think whoever wants to be voted in next time should spend several million on road resurfacing as it’s such a talked about topic and you just don’t see the damage on roads in central London that you see in other cities. I got a flat tyre from a pothole and apart from the expense (which I reclaimed from the council after 18 months) was the hassle.

Sheffield potholes and in the Peak District are enormous and really the roads need totally resurfacing but there’s no money in local councils

We have serious problems with potholes where I live and almost everyone I know has had punctures as a result of them. The council are busy pissing extortionate amounts of money on traffic calming measures on roads where they are totally, totally unnecessary, and failing to sort the potholes. People are getting fed up.