State of the roads

[ibicker]

Went for a bit of a spin today around Dorking Box hill area. The roads are really awful huge pot holes etc etc. pulled away from a set of lights and the back wheel spun on a load of gravel (brown pants momemt) Is it just me or are our roads becoming death traps?

[D-Rider]

Is it just me or are our roads becoming death traps?

It's not just you.

Years of neglect to the structure of the road plus crappy work by the utility companies who seldom finish their work properly and it was just waiting for a more severe winter to rip it all apart.
Most of the repairs I've seen won't last long. I think they may say they are temporary repairs but I'm not holding my breath waiting for them to be done properly.

Heaven help the bike accident figures when the summer-only heroes come out of hibernation assuming they can ride like demons from the off.

[paddyz1]

[Gio]

The worst bit of road I've seen bearing in mind car drivers use it as a drag strip is Putney Bridge, I had a lump of gravel gouge a nasty groove in my visor on Friday, hate to think what would have happened if I'd had my visor up.

Elmbridge Borough Council has the worst record in the country for potholes.

[Aladinsaneuk]

seem to recall somewhere that if you reported a bad piece of road - pot holes etc, to the appropriate council, they had to fix them - with in 30 days i think?

if they failed to do so they became liable for any damage or injuries sustained as a result of the crap road...

[Falco9]

I believe the tip here is to report every damn pothole you can (obviously start with your local ones)

Already I've read that many councils are wriggling out of their responsibilities by claiming that they cannot be held liable or responsible for potholes that haven't been reported to them (god knows how these bureaucrats get to work on a morning.........float??)

I reported the condition of one of the main roads here in Ossett just after the worst of the weather had past. It was terrible before but after....(it also helped that this particular road was featured on GMTV as one of the worst in the country) Wakefield council repaired it (the full 1mile) within 2 weeks.

If I see a pothole locally I just report it on their web-site, that way if anyone falls off or damages their bike / car the council cannot wriggle out of any claim against them

I know we shouldn't have to do this but...they play the game so we have to

F9

[MartDude]

Seems the source of the problem goes back, at least in part, to poor decision-making 15 years ago :

About 15 years ago, we adopted the same types of materials to the Spanish and French - and guess what, do any of you older riders remember all the slippery road signs that were put up because of the spate of skidding accidents?

The local authorities and Highways Agency were very worried about this (and rightly so).

But, the thing that I notice now is that these surfaces we adopted from the French, Germans and Spanish 15 years ago, are the ones that are NOW breaking up so badly - and they're breaking up much faster than our old traditional UK surfacing material (Hot Rolled Asphalt and Pre-Coated Chippings).

HRA and PCC's are beginning to make a come-back as a surfacing material in the UK as people see the failings of the inherited mainland European materials.

(Copied from Club Aprilia - acknowledgement to Big Cheese)

[Kwackerz]

That was an interesting snippet of info. true too

[D-Rider]

I believe the tip here is to report every damn pothole you can (obviously start with your local ones)

If only that were practical .... one stretch near me must have around 50 or 60 of the things within 200 metres or so .... and stretches like that aren't uncommon round here.
What's more, that one covers one of these stupid traffic calming disasters that give just single lane access/exit to an area and make it absolutely impossible to pick a path through the holes.

[Willopotomas]

Instead of filling in the pot holes in one road, they dug most of it up and started again. They didn't do the whole stretch, but its a massive improvement on the old.

[Falco9]

I believe the tip here is to report every damn pothole you can (obviously start with your local ones)

If only that were practical .... one stretch near me must have around 50 or 60 of the things within 200 metres or so .... and stretches like that aren't uncommon round here.
What's more, that one covers one of these stupid traffic calming disasters that give just single lane access/exit to an area and make it absolutely impossible to pick a path through the holes.

Sorry Andy, I should have said, I just reported the entire stretch of road and subsequently I have reported "stretches" of road between junctions. As you quite rightly point out; to report each one individually would be a lifetime job.

F9

[D-Rider]

Ah! maybe I had engaged "Literal-Mode" and was running it on too high a setting .....


Stretches become more feasible .... though it might be easier to just report the stretches that are OK .........

[HisNibbs]

Roads near me a totaly fkd. Often see some poor soul pulling up outside with deflated tyres having hit one of the larger holes a few hundred yards back. It realy needs to be resurfaced but they just keep patching the patches. The holes were so bad they finaly got round to patching it again about three months ago. Those patches didn't survive the next little snow cover and frost and have just added the loose stones and sperated ashvelt to the existing mix of holes, sand, salt, mud and horse sh-t. There also seems to be a lot of suface subsidence around so some sections are also like ocean rollers.

You have to keep your eyes peeled. Today I was pitching into a bit of chicane with a car comming the over way, there used to be a line through the broken surface right on the inside so I was keeping my speed up. When I got into it I could see that inside line now had a crater. Fortunately I was able to avoid it and the worst of the normal rough stuff. A couple of other incidents as well but fortunately provided I can hold on, the Falco just seem to take everything in its stride.

[HowardQ]

I nearly came a serious cropper a few weeks ago.
Came around the main roundabout at the north west of Newark, (the one you go to if you go over the bridge near the barge). Had come over the Trent from the east and went round the roundabout to the last turn off to the A616 heading back towards Ollerton and Worksop. It's a fairly tight turn onto the A616 and the surface was a bit crappy and I was going slower than normal. It is a bit blind as you come round and with the bike banked over the front wheel went straight into a pot hole. As it was banked over the front wheel was against the outside wall of the hole, which stopped it and threw the front of the bike staight upright. I came out of the hole upright with a bit of a wobble. With the bike upright I was now heading for the other side of the road as I fought to get it back together, looking at man in a blue van, who wanted to be in the R/H lane for the roundabout and I'm heading sraight for his front end, Oh shit.
He swerved back to the left and I shoved the inside bar as hard as I could to push the bike back down to the left. The bike banked over left just at the other side of the white line and he had gone just far enough to his left to give me just enough room. I can still see the look on his face, and I was filling my leather jeans by now.
He had been slowing down for the roundabout and I was cornering much slower than normal and it was all over in a second or so, but it all seemed like slow motion and it could have been curtains, would have been if I had been going faster.
All you need is one big pothole like this on a line where you are not expecting it, with the bike banked over and there is nothing you can do.
I was very lucky. I'd been telling everybody how dangerous potholes like this can be for bikers, particularly at the council where I work, but never wanted to prove the bloody point.
Take care all of you.

[Samray]

Someone mention potholes?

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c1a_1270691319