Roads may close if potholes get worse warn councils… and they're the sorts of roads used by cyclists

I forsee a time when the only bike suitable for run out on the C roads in the lake district is my Orange 5

We have some shocking examples after last winter, I think I might take up potholing as a new hobby!

I agree about the cheap tar & chippings problem, all that does is make the holes harder to see until you're in them.

@Crosshouses
Marthall Ln, Ollerton and Common Ln, Lach Denis used to be part of my favourite route, but now I totally avoid them. There used to be a nice slick line on all these roads, I used to just follow the outer tyre line, through miles and miles of beautiful rolling landscape. True there might have been a few crispy edges to the road but not really a problem. Now they might as well have dipped the road it glitter. Just a waste of money. Chipping just ruins the whole road and barely fixes any problems.

"I for one would be a fan of gravel type roads as it may slow down bad drivers and offer a real 'on road' cycle network for the UK."

Then I suggest a holiday in Surrey and Hampshire, where our roads are regularly tar-and-chipped - a surface which when fresh basically gives you slightly less loose gravel. They're f***ing horrid for cycling on, and once the loose chippings have eventually been knocked off the road by the cars they stay horrid. Me, I prefer my holidays in France where the tarmac is beautifully smooth and people in cars leave room when passing people on bikes.

Government should give incentives to push the heavy freight onto the railways - reducing costs of wear to roads whilst simultaneously with less lorrys/potholes creating safer cycling conditions... which just might persuade more people out of their cars and onto bikes?
Or am I just a naive dreamer?

Quote:

I do hope that you lot that moan about the pot holes take the time to report the worst ones

after reporting 40-50 and seeing none being fixed, after writing to the councillor and getting "didn't realise pot holes could be a problem for cyclists" as a response....

virtually given up!

Personally it's not the potholes that get me, it's the constantly uneven surface at the side of the road caused by underlying failure.
While it's common sense that proper repairs save money "in the long run", unfortunately Councils don't get given the money for the next ten years worth of repairs in one go but have an annual allowance. With a fixed budget, you have to decide whether to fix one pothole really well (by resurfacing an entire length) or patch 50 potholes.
Considering the current national debt, I can't see any government borrowing enough money to 'fix' all the roads properly, so it will always be a sticking plaster approach.

I do hope that you lot that moan about the pot holes take the time to report the worst ones

I've done a few but nowhere near enough!

I did a London-Paris ride a few weeks back and aside from Paris (which had potholes to almost match London's) the French roads were beyond dreamy. Now i get the fact that there is a lower population density, more road options and the climate is less harsh on the roads (although some Alpine roads are fairly shocking on the pothole front) but there was clear evidence of recent tarmac'ing which points to the fact that the French are keeping people employed by investing in infrastructure whereas we in the UK will build up a horriffic legacy under this government that will take a generation to rectify as the roads will become so universally poor and there will not be the resources available to sort all of them at once.

In our often traffic clogged country, the idea of closing any roads seems totally illogical.

+1, albeit with a pipedreamer/devil's advocate hat on, for the suggestion that maybe this isn't a bad thing because it could hint at a two-tier system.

The inescapable fact appears to be that for whatever reason there are insufficient resources to maintain the full network to a standard capable of supporting high axle weights.

So why not push cars and lorries onto roads that are better designed for them, and which can be given the necessary level of investment? Then reclaim the other roads primarily or exclusively for two-wheelers and other light/unpowered vehicles. A one-off repair of the sort that's currently used would withstand many more years of lightweight use than it would with current vehicle speeds and axle weights, so they wouldn't need anything like the same level of maintenance investment beyond that point.

Swapping to my pragmatist's hat, I've yet to see a road closure barrier that is impenetrable to bicycles, so why not ride 'em anyway? Sure, you'd have to avoid some potholes, but we have to do that anyway - and it's arguably a price worth paying to eliminate the possibility of a car driving straight into the back of you.

This is a good oportunity to upgrade these parts of the network to the status of Cycle Tracks.

I thought motorists paid road tax so this sort of thing cannot happen? Or do they waste all the poor motorists money on cycle-paths

how about the councils just fix the roads properly with tarmac not this loose chipping nonsense and stop wasting money on speed bumps that are not needed and poncy shirt and tie outings and lunches.

rant over

I live in Sussex and work in Kent, the difference is noticable, although kent is by no means perfect and there are a few shocking ones still to be adressed.

100M from the kent border on my commute there's a patchwork of holes that cross the entire carriage way on an NSL piece of road, I have to signal right despite there being no turn available and go 6+ foot into the lane to avoid, this is on an incline where I am doing maybe 12-14 MPH and traffic is wanting to do 60, it's been there since February! Sussex CC you suck and you put me in danger every day I ride to work.
[/rant]

The government and local councils spend millions of pounds each year paying consultants to advise them on ways of saving money. Surely one of these consultants would of told the; that by doing the job properly in the first place, would save them bucket loads of cash in the long term.

I've often wondered why the Beeching methodology has never been applied to roads. Back lanes can't pay for themselves by any normal method of calculating it. If they were anything but roads they'd be left to wither and die, as branch lines were, regardless of the fact they form the only means of transport for their inhabitants and are a feeder to the main roads.
I can see such roads reverting to the sort of farmer-maintained by-ways they were 200 years ago. Trouble is the farmers have no money either!

Sheffield is lucky at the mo - through the joy of ASOS and Visit Yorkshire, we're having loads of roads resurfaced, including the ones just outside where I live. The difference between worn and fresh laid tarmac is remarkable - the new stuff is like being cushioned by angels.

But I was out near Buxton a few days ago, and loads of the little lanes were falling apart. It does seem to be worse than ever before. I don't particularly like cars, but surely investing in the road network is one of the fundamental duties of a government? Right?

... unless the 4x4 lobby have had an effect on Conservative policy recently ...

Hi Gizmo. Your suggestion that major roads are maintained is optimistic. Some bits of the M1/M25 which I drove last week are as bad as the back roads - it's just that you go over them faster in a car and there's some suspension to cushion you.

I find the opposite of what you claim in the second paragraph.
In Manchester (where poor people live) the main roads are shocking but get out to the back lanes of Cheshire (where rich people live) and Cheshire East Council seem to be spending an awful lot of money on resurfacing and the roads, in general, are ok.
Any Mancs who have the misfortune to cycle down Wilmslow Road, Palatine Road and Styal Road out through Gatley will know what i mean.
Also in Cheshire, to their credit, they seem to doing a decent resurfacing job - completely stripping back and resurfacing from edge to edge. Not just bunging some tarmac into the hole and hoping for the best - as seems to be the way in Manchester/ Stockport.