Potholes and Road Safety

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Mon 29 Mar 2004 14:07
Potholes and Road Safety - Greg R
I was reading a motorcycle publication and there was a very upseting article. I will write it as it is published:

\'The RIDE report on road tax and poor roads which made me very angry. Last month there was an incident near my home, in which a 16 year old lad was riding his scooter along a busy road. His front wheel hit a pothole and he lost lost control. The scooter slid across the road under an HGV and the lad was killed.

The next day the council were there, filling in the holethat caused the tragedy. Surely, the same money that was readily available to do the work just 24 hours later, had been available before the accident? It makes you think: is it due to lack of funds that these thing s don\'t get sorted out or the can\'t-be\'bothered factor?\'

And this article followed:

\'One way to help out with the pothole situation is to notify the council. This will achieve two things:
1. It could make them liable if someone has an accident as a result of defective road surface they were aware of.
2. Becuase if this they are more likely to rectify it (especially as we approach the end of the financial year when they have to spend money or lose it)\'

\'Top idea. You can find your councils\'s number in the phonebook. Give them a buzz and ask for the highways department\'

I am sure we are all aware of the many places where there are potholes and defective road surfaces, so if we all did something by making a phonecall, perhaps more would be done to make the roads a better place.

It is important to note that out of the road tax we pay, Ride found only 16% (approx) is actually spent on the roads. The rest is spent elsewhere, which means the money is there but is spent in my opinion fraudulently on something else. It is odd that if we give say a shop keeper a pound, they are legally made to give us the items we pay for. But we pay road tax and the authorities do not even have to spend it on the roads.
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Mon 29 Mar 2004 14:27
Potholes and Road Safety - daveyjp
I've reported potholes a couple of times. The first time after I hit one which nearly wrecked the suspension - this was sorted the day after. The other was one which I missed because I saw it early enough. This was also filled the day after. The money is there to repair, but do you expect every part of every road to be checked every day? Large potholes can appear overnight - the second one above was caused by tarmac being lifted in one go. It wasn't there one day, the next day it was. It's up to us as motorist to report serious potholes then they get sorted. With e-mail its now easier than it used to be.

As for the bit about road tax. I pay tax on every bottle of whisky I buy, but I can't remember the last time the Government built a distillery.
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Mon 29 Mar 2004 14:27
Potholes and Road Safety - BrianW
Apart from potholes, most roads carrying HGVs are now badly tramlined, especially where the road is narrowed adjacent to islands.
In wet weather there can be over an inch of water in these with the risk of aquaplaning increased.
On a motorcycle or scooter the tramlines can throw you off course and onto a potential collision path.
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