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?

It’s dreadful here. Deep potholes, degraded road surfaces, tree roots pushing up the tarmac, road works resulting in worse surfaces and pavements that are becoming impassable because the foliage has never been cut back.

Thanks for your responses! I’ve obviously got lucky as it seems a big issue in a lot of areas.

In a wider sense, I agree about the general decline in infrastructure - unrepaired fences, uncut verges, vandalism in parks left “as is” and playgrounds not well maintained.

The roads are dreadful. I say that as a pedestrian and bus user. However in England when you actually get to local finances social care and SEND is more broken and takes the vast majority of council spending. There is no wasted money now after years of cuts. Reform has found where they have been elected promising to cut council tax and fix potholes and will be the same when they start in the councils they have taken including the one where I live.

Aside from the obvious dangers to motorists and car damage, they're a pox on pedestrians too when it's raining - like having a bucket of water thrown round you when you've been trying to keep dry under an umbrella. To be fair to drivers, they're harder to see than puddles (we have a lot of those too, the roads are generally shit).

Devon had 40 consecutive days of rain at the start of the year, many of our local roads were flooded. The potholes have been deeper than I've ever seen and multiple cars / tyres were damaged daily on the road by my house and this was happening all over the county. I think it's been a huge problem this year.

I never used to understand why people moaned about them. Now I get it. There is a stretch of road I drive most days that is like the surface of the moon. My newish car has a suspension problem and I’m pretty sure I know the culprit…

I hit a pot hole on my bike. Lost conciseness and fractured pelvis.

People should be more aware that cars with skinnier tyres are massively more likely to get punctures and damage when hitting potholes. And the repairs will be more expensive when they do. Larger diameter rims are usually sold as an "upgrade" on cars with more expensive trims, but people should be made more aware of how impractical they are.

Unfortunately, low profile tyres just aren't suitable for the state of our roads.

But I do think people get weirdly obsessive over potholes compared to the other problems our country is facing.

YES!

I never understand this obsession. I drive for a living, and of course occasionally encounter a bad one, but it really is just occasionally. People seem to think it's reasonable to expect roads to be like ice rinks!!

Perhaps the issue is Council's perceived priorities? Maybe they think if they sort things the majority of people actually notice, then their legitimate claims of underfunding by central government will go completely unheard? Trouble is I think this is backfiring on them.

There is a pothole on a busy road near us that you have to drive around to avoid. Luckily it's mostly local drivers, so they either pull over to avoid it, or to make space. But I keep waiting for a head-on collision. All it's going to take is one lorry driver who doesn't know the road, and one little hatchback that assumes the lorry will make room...

It's also difficult to pull over to let vehicles pass each other on some of the lanes, due to enormous potholes along the edges of the tarmac.

I mean there was a fatal accident near me that killed two people and the whole town is now fundraising for their kids. It’s made it an issue to the point that our local mp actually came and did a meeting about it.

Also if it costs people money in suspension and tyres they do notice…

It's a huge issue round us. We've had a cyclist and a motorcyclist killed because of them. The poor cyclist (who was wearing a helmet) hit the pothole that stretched across the road and went straight over the handlebars. The way he landed broke his neck and was dead at the scene. The motorcyclist, despite wearing a helmet and the correct protective gear hit another pothole, bike went flying and threw motorcycle and rider and skidded across the road. Again way the rider landed meant he was dead at the scene. Both potholes had been visited by the council and deemed "non urgent to fix". Multiple vehicles badly damaged by them. The roads look like the surface of the moon round us.

What blessed part of the country are you living in? Or do you drive a tank or a monster truck because they are the only vehicles round us that potholes wouldn't bother?

I live in a major city and our potholes are horrendous! Barely even passable in parts. I’m not talking little holes, I’m talking great big trenches that shudder your whole car. And then they wonder why folk drive SUVs around town!

We had three tyres destroyed last year by potholes. And you can't just "drive around them" if it's a narrow road and there's an oncoming car. Or if the pothole is filled with water and just looks like a puddle.

They are absolutely awful round by me, massive pot holes and in some places the roads are actually subsiding. My car is only little so if we accidentally hit one I genuinely think my teeth are going to fall out. My sister needed to be towed home with two flat tyres after hitting a particularly large pothole on her way home from work in the rain and dark.

I had to laugh when Heidi Alexander had to have her car towed home. She’s my MP and the minister for transport. All she seems to have done so far is paint a few trains. The MP equivalent of ‘I carried a watermelon’.

No, people just don't want to be driving on roads where hitting a pothole means they destroy their wheels and potentially their entire car.

If encountering potholes is really only an occasional thing for you, then you're incredibly lucky. There are bad ones on virtually every road in our town, and on every single road in and out.

Weirdly obsessive as cost of living has risen up hugely, we pay for our car to be roadworthy through MOTs, replacing our tyres and now we're having to find more money, more often because we're hitting potholes. It happened to me on my way to work. Caused that much damage I had one wheel facing inwards, had to get it towed and lost a days pay, along with the money to fix it.

Reform are where I live. The roads are definitely not getting better.

They’re horrendous in our SE town too. It’s not just little country roads, it’s the main A roads running in and out of town and main roads within town. Ok it’s not a big town, but it’s not a tiny either - big enough to have multiple supermarkets.

They get like craters before they’re fixed and they’re definitely dangerous.

They are fucking diabolical in my part of london so cant imagine what nonsense people in derby / Grantham/ whatever are enduring...

I have narrowly avoided damage to my car due to potholes and know 2 people who have not been so fortunate.

What is fucking nonsense is that this is the sort of bullshit actual real political parties are losing ground to reform on because they cant get their shit together over something as basic as tarmacing a road.

There was also a large one on a main motorway near me. I want to say M1(?) But cant recall however i was shocked by the fact it existed on any motorway at all ...

I don’t think all the massive heavy SUVs help, yet their massive tyres & suspension can cope best with them whereas the lightest road users- cyclists and motorcyclists are both the most vulnerable.

Where on earth do you drive??!! You must be extremely lucky to not encounter them.

From my road to the nearest main A road, it takes roughly 50 seconds driving. My kids counted 16 potholes with white spray paint in that minute earlier on this week.

YABVU

we have monsters near us. Apparently, someone in Manchester got his local council to sort them out by spray painting them around the edges and adding big dicks. He became known as Wanksy

Friend is currently in intensive care following a cycle accident involving a pot hole on a country road in Somerset. Injuries may well be life changing.