Bad road surfaces

[metalmonkey]

I haven't been riding a riding a great deal or long distances but I was riding out to my folks place for the dinner today I was like wtf!

Has anyone else noticed the totally poor state of out roads I mean there are really sub standard... I was riding through some of the lanes, but even on some main routes there are some really huge pot holes and ruts in the road.

I wasn't pushing it today just my shoulder said no, so I wasn't anywhere near the way I would like to ride, but I thought dam some of the damage on the roads could hurt us as well.

So what do other people think? is it the same across the UK or indeed further a field?

[Shellywoozle]

Its the same around here, the bad weather and all that snow has caused the damage.

Staffs council is slowly doing the pot holes, they have temporarily filled them in and put white marks around them so I assume they are work in progress.

Makes riding the bike fun don't it.

[dizzyblonde]

you want to come to Halifax mate, then if you have any eyeballs left, you can go back to your better surfaced roads in London and enjoy them more, because believe me, they are far worse up here than down there.

Notice that every time I go daaan saaf!

[DarrenSV650S]

The roads round here have gotten a LOT worse over winter for some reason. Some really bad pot holes and cracking. The bits that they have repaired aren't much better

[sauluk]

Haven't been out on the bike for this reason. Some of the roads have trenches running down them!

[dizzyblonde]

You can be in danger of falling off the road round here, where they have just eroded away over the winter. Theres pot holes all year round as the council can't be bothered to resurface roads properly. So potholes on potholes after the freezing cold, and roads that have got narrower overnight in some places!

[Gabriel2k]

Just the usual short sightedness of the people in power means that our roads havent been maintained properly for many years.

[tigersaw]

A huge amout of the problems are where f**kwit utility companies have dug holes in the roads and filled them poorly.
No sooner has the council contractor put a lovely smooth new tarmac top down some to$$ers decide to stick a gas pipe or something in there.

[AndyBrad]

try hudds!!! the worse roads in britain. fact. infact there not even legal!

we had some guys filling the potholes down our road near work. they filled 4 in about 3 hours just by filling them with bitumun. (sp) they filled the large ones but then left 6in plus holes at the side of the main ones just because they couldnt be bothered! waste of time :(

[yorkie_chris]

Yeah the temporary patches are horrible, they're less obvious than a pothole, slippy as hell and when they do inevitably fall apart they leave a big patch of gravel!

[Mark_h]

Get yourself into Wales. Million miles of EU subsidised perfection. I really don't understand why only Wales and Cornwall seem to be able to get EU cash to fix up their roads.

[dizzyblonde]

slippy as hell and when they do inevitably fall apart they leave a big patch of gravel!


I await the 'warning loose chippings' signs during the summer. Calderdale council have a liking for covering the road in marbles, instead of doing a proper job. Three weeks later the marbles have dispersed a little only to have uncovered different potholes:mad:

[punyXpress]

Just outside the window, there's about 10 metres of shallow holes that were ' fixed ' 3 weeks ago. Just checked - they're back again.
How's about every time petholes are mentioned in the press writing in saying " these potholes KILL motorcyclists " Wasted on here as preaching to the converted.

[yorkie_chris]

I await the 'warning loose chippings' signs during the summer. Calderdale council have a liking for covering the road in marbles, instead of doing a proper job. Three weeks later the marbles have dispersed a little only to have uncovered different potholes:mad:

Dunno, TBH that road from hebden to haworth (A6033?) was 'marbled' a while ago and before all the freezing it was well grippy and pretty smooth.

[dizzyblonde]

Remember going down that road when they resurfaced it years ago, it was what foobarred the belly pan on Suzy. It was knee deep in loose chippings, in fact it was like riding in one of those McDonalds smarties ice cream whippy things. The dust flinging up as well made it it atrocious.
Warley road they did that, seem to put a nice thick coating of marbles on it, felt like riding on Morcambe Bay sand. Both occasions was worse than that section on the GM last year when they'd done the same thing!
Its when they first do it when its worse, I must get unlucky.

[speedplay]

There were some pretty nasty potholes yesterday on the EAR rideout.
Some were so bad thet they were being pointed out by the riders up front.

[Dicky Ticker]

The man was outside our house painting pretty squares round all the bad bits the other day.
I can save you some time,between the roundabout and the junction,approx 300yds,there are 128 patches and as I live in a very old part of the town we have sandstone kerb stones that are all flaking
His reply was that we are having that section of the road totally resurfaced but not till October and even then they will not replace the crumbling kerb stones due to costs. The rest is being patched,sprayed and re-chipped.
Better than nothing at all I suppose.

[Nick_69]

I remember reading this report and thinking great http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/News/newsresults/General-news/2010/February/feb0510-Surrey-most-potholed-county/

[Geodude]

Was out yesterday in the durham area and the roads here are awful, more of a dodge the ruts, loose gravel and potholes than a ride. :mad:

[Drew Carey]

+1 to Wales, was around mid Wales all day Saturday. Roads were in amazing condition, even up at Elan Valley. Really impressed. Was the main reason for doing the recce prior to the Madlanders rideout, as I was very concerned over potholes.

[LK-SV]

Council removed speed humps down a road near us this weekend .... weird !!

[Drew Carey]

Council removed speed humps down a road near us this weekend .... weird !!

Probably need the aggregate to fill holes!!!!! :D

[punyXpress]

... or to build even bigger ones ?

[G]

I drove across the peak district on sunday and there was holes everywhere, some were honestly unblievable... some sections of road even had temporary traffic light and then a slalom for 200 metres to get you around all the bad bits. A lot of roads had uneven surface signs out.

Then I drove out of the peaks into cheshire and north wales... the vast majority of roads were silky smooth tarmac... very white with salt but amazing condition.

[yorkie_chris]

Do they expect cold weather and build them to suit or what?

[ThEGr33k]

What I dont get is they get an obscene amount of money from road tax and Fuel duty, yet only a TINY amount of it gets put back into the roads. I was talking to my mum and we were wondering, is this a form of stealing or something like that, taking money falsly? I just think its obscene!

Council removed speed humps down a road near us this weekend .... weird !!

Its because they dont need them with the pot holes, you cant speed... heh!

[dizzyblonde]

I was talking to my mum and we were wondering, is this a form of stealing or something like that, taking money falsly? I just think its obscene!


Its very stealth like. However wait until all those roadworks are complete on our motorways, and the speed cameras are all in use. Before you know it they will all be toll roads....think about it, it will happen

[andreis]

I deeply sympathise on the pothole problem. What's worse, I actually thought that UK, beeing a much more economically developed country than my own, would have way better road infrastructure and pothole-free roads as a consequence. Just so that you know where this all leads, over here the authorities cover the potholes during spring just to shut us up, knowing fully well it would only last for about 1-2 months. Some of the roads are so bad that it's more pothole than road..
Basically, you should nagger the council to redo the road (I'm seriously thinking of organising protests just to get what we're normally supposed to get for our road tax money - good roads), as I'm sure the aportioned road tax should more than cover for road upkeeping (otherwise, they would have a reason to just ask for more money, wouldn't they?)

[punyXpress]

You've got the English road taxation system in one there Andreis!
What we can't work out is the next step - where does all the money go?

[carternd]

All the GS riders will be feeling smug right now!

[Gabriel2k]

You've got the English road taxation system in one there Andreis!
What we can't work out is the next step - where does all the money go?

All the money goes into the back pockets of all the MP's on the take, all the Contractors that get away with shoddy repairs when they do work and all the other backhanders and useless bureaucracy in government.

[G]

The biggest problem around my way (Nottinghamshire) is not the actual roads themselves, but the **** jobs statutory service companies have done when reinstating roads after digging the original ones up.

All the problems here are occuring around new drain covers, where a pipe line has been laid across the road or where new traffic light systems have been put in.

[ThEGr33k]

All the money goes into the back pockets of all the MP's on the take, all the Contractors that get away with shoddy repairs when they do work and all the other backhanders and useless bureaucracy in government.

Dont forget the benefit that people get, hell benefits are that good now some people cant be arsed working because they would get less money!?!?!? :rolleyes:


I know at the moment that the roads that have been repaired around here are some of the best parts!!! Tsh. Obviosly it wont last though.

Apparently though the councel can order them to do a repair again if people complain so if your road is crap after being ripped up by gas people etc then get onto the councel to sort it!!!

[simesb]

The biggest problem around my way (Nottinghamshire) is not the actual roads themselves, but the **** jobs statutory service companies have done when reinstating roads after digging the original ones up.

This only started being a problem once the councils stopped inspecting the works; before then the service companies used to have to do a proper job because they knew they wouldn't be allowed off the job until it had been inspected.

[Milky Bar Kid]

This only started being a problem once the councils stopped inspecting the works; before then the service companies used to have to do a proper job because they new they wouldn't be allowed off the job until it had been inspected.


That should be brought back in. The utility companies make an awful mess with the patches that then result in pot holes.

[fastdruid]

You're all making a big mistake, its not 'Road' tax anymore and hasn't been for (lots of) years. It's VED, Vehicle Excise Duty, changed specifically so that there wouldn't be any assumption that drivers had any 'right' or ownership of the roads.

Druid

[andreis]

In other words, changed so that they don't HAVE to fix the roads with the money received from taxation

[ThEGr33k]

You're all making a big mistake, its not 'Road' tax anymore and hasn't been for (lots of) years. It's VED, Vehicle Excise Duty, changed specifically so that there wouldn't be any assumption that drivers had any 'right' or ownership of the roads.

Druid

In other words, changed so that they don't HAVE to fix the roads with the money received from taxation


Indeed, that is sooooo wrong. I thought the government was supposed to be there to look out for its people... Just who is it looking out for except its self and the Banks? :smt017

[fastdruid]

Indeed, that is sooooo wrong. I thought the government was supposed to be there to look out for its people... Just who is it looking out for except its self and the Banks? :smt017

Whatever gave you that stupid idea?

Druid

[ThEGr33k]

Whatever gave you that stupid idea?

Druid

I dunno, some strange sense of honour... guess thats also a load of rubbish. I really dont think much to our government at all, especially our current one. :mad:

[Sosha]

Dont forget the benefit that people get, hell benefits are that good now some people cant be arsed working because they would get less money!?!?!? :rolleyes:

Though it pales into nothing compared to what we've spent on the banks. :smt092

That said the council have just fixed up the cul de sac where I work (Granted some of the craters were large enought to lose a small child in)

It's all budgets.

We could pay £10 pounds and have something that'll last 10years or we could pay £5.99 & bin it in a year but that's 1/2 the price :santa:.

Then there's the left -over cash. Can't spend less than the budget so lets build some pointless speed humps somewhere to use it up. The type anything large can just drive over.

:-({|=

And Breathe

[ThEGr33k]

Aye, budgets *shakes fist* anything to cut a corner to save a few pensies and do half a job.

I know in a few years all these new "super schools" will be costing a fortune to prop up as the buildings will only last a very short while. Sigh.

[Gabriel2k]

As a Building Services Consultant I do a lot of work with councils and I unfortunately know how wasteful, beurocratic, idiotic and generally useless they are.

Trying to push renewable and sustainable options at the moment but they expect 5 year payback periods which is ridiculous!

[sauluk]

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/potholed/

[ThEGr33k]

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/potholed/


BUMP

Might be worth starting a new thread for this... :cool:

[simesb]

For starters, nothing ever comes from petitioning No 10 - it is a pretence at listening to the public. Secondly, it is the responsibility of councils to fix the roads not central government.

I would also add that making it a "motorbike" petition immediately marginalises it - I know as a cage driver I also find it dangerous to drive around here.

On a local note, since Manchester overwhelmingly rejected the congestion charge, the council seem to have gone out of their way to screw up the roads. Close the trams whilst simultaneously close one lane of the inner ring road?

[ThEGr33k]

Your probably right about all that Simes... damn the government!!!! :(

As to Manchester... you know what to do to fix that issue? Move to the right side of the Pennines ;)

[yorkie_chris]

Take a hint from 28 days later and set fire to it