UK roads

[NessL]

Another thing that makes the pothole issue worse is the prevalence of alloy wheels with low profile tyres. When I started driving everything had steel wheels and full profile tyres (or maybe 65s if you drove a Porker) and although there were potholes around, they did no damage as far as I recall.

If we now choose to drive cars with expensive delicate alloys, which have no functional benefit over steelies, just bling, with 'rubber band' tyres, are we at least partly to blame for damage if we hit a road defect? We know British roads are bad, it's not a new thing even though it's been getting worse.

Also (and dons even bigger tin helmet) I've never suffered pothole damage, despite driving often enough in the wet/dark. Yet I know people who say it's happened to them two or three times in a year, and in broad daylight. Bad luck? Or better go to Specsavers??

Come and drive in west Kent / East Sussex. Some of the roads have more potholes than road surface.
I suspect it’s due to the fact that they never resurface properly, just splash down a thin layer of tarmac and cover with chippings. Also the shear volume of traffic in this crowded corner of the country.

 

[Johnboy]

This thread has re-ignited my long held view that heavy vehicles DO wear out the road quicker - so in general SUV's EV's and California's are all equally to blame, but the real culprits are the heavy haulage vehicles. I read about this many years ago in an article relating to vehicle road tax - unfairly targeting the car user. This was the basis for the article.......



The fourth power law (also known as the fourth power rule) states that the greater the axle load of a vehicle, the stress on the road caused by the motor vehicle increases in proportion to the fourth power of the axle load. This law was discovered in the course of a series of scientific experiments in the United States in the late 1950s and was decisive for the development of standard construction methods in road construction.[1]

Background​

At the beginning of the 1950s, the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) dealt with the question of how the size of the axle load affects the service life of a road pavement. For this purpose, a test track was built in Ottawa, Illinois, which consisted of six loops, each with two lanes. The lanes were paved with both asphalt and concrete of varying thicknesses. In the two-year test, trucks with different axle loads then drove the roads almost continuously. The test was called the AASHO Road Test.

When evaluating the series of tests, it was found that there is a connection between the thickness of the pavement, the number of load transfers and the axle load, and that these have a direct effect on the service life and condition of a road. The service life of the road is thereby reduced with approximately the fourth power of the axle load.[1]

The accuracy of the law of the fourth power is disputed among experts, since the test results depend on many other factors, such as climatic conditions, in addition to the factors mentioned above.[2]

 

[Hawthorn37]

All the give way lines markings etc are wearing/worn off and not being repainted. which is a safety issue. Check the photos on the Highway Code pages compared to reality.

I got done for straying into a bus lane a few weeks ago, and I had no clue from road markings - or the absence of them, where it was! Didn’t have the energy to fight the jogsworths looking after expensive cameras that seem to have lots of investment.

 

[SamSara]

I will give it a shot. This is my third incident since lockdown. I was on my way back from work in Pompey to Somerset. I do wonder where all this money for compensation comes from? Surely it must hit other more deserving local authority budgets. However I pay my taxes and the costs are adding up.

I think Hampshire and our cities are particularily bad for pot holes and have narrowly missed many as both a driver and cyclist

 

[Anthony1]

Driving back our new runaround in the dark into a massive pot hole. Alloy trashed. A friend of mine did the same yesterday. I am wondering whether it is worthwhile owning a nice viechle anymore in the uk? Our roads are a disgrace. Not taking a view in EVs , but it will get worse because of their weight. I really don't want to drive in the dark anymore.

It happened to me in my car, in Surrey. When I put in a claim for a replacement wheel and tyre, they refused to pay and told me to go the small claim court.

 

[The Tall Luthier]

This thread has re-ignited my long held view that heavy vehicles DO wear out the road quicker - so in general SUV's EV's and California's are all equally to blame, but the real culprits are the heavy haulage vehicles. I read about this many years ago in an article relating to vehicle road tax - unfairly targeting the car user. This was the basis for the article.......



The fourth power law (also known as the fourth power rule) states that the greater the axle load of a vehicle, the stress on the road caused by the motor vehicle increases in proportion to the fourth power of the axle load. This law was discovered in the course of a series of scientific experiments in the United States in the late 1950s and was decisive for the development of standard construction methods in road construction.[1]

Background​

At the beginning of the 1950s, the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) dealt with the question of how the size of the axle load affects the service life of a road pavement. For this purpose, a test track was built in Ottawa, Illinois, which consisted of six loops, each with two lanes. The lanes were paved with both asphalt and concrete of varying thicknesses. In the two-year test, trucks with different axle loads then drove the roads almost continuously. The test was called the AASHO Road Test.

When evaluating the series of tests, it was found that there is a connection between the thickness of the pavement, the number of load transfers and the axle load, and that these have a direct effect on the service life and condition of a road. The service life of the road is thereby reduced with approximately the fourth power of the axle load.[1]

The accuracy of the law of the fourth power is disputed among experts, since the test results depend on many other factors, such as climatic conditions, in addition to the factors mentioned above.[2]

I once followed a lorry carrying pre-fabricated concrete structures up a mountain road to a new hotel build. The axle load was so high that the wheels were compressing the tarmac, melting it with its mass and then lifting it straight off the road as the wheels carried on turning. This alone makes me think that the Fourth Power has some credence.

 

[GrannyJen]

I think Hampshire and our cities are particularily bad for pot holes and have narrowly missed many as both a driver and cyclist

The very worst road that I have ever cycled on was in Cambridgeshire. It wasn't a road, it was a series of ruts and gullies linked together by thin strips of tarmac. It then crossed the border into Essex and suddenly it was quite the opposite. A beautiful stretch of tarmac from the border onwards!

 

[Hawthorn37]

The worst we‘ve seen this year have been in Scotland. Alright, we did our tour in April and May, before the fabled pot hole filling season started. The road down to the Tallisker distillery was, well words cannot describe. 2 miles of sweat and knotted eyebrows, travelling at 5mph to get there without losing fillings might suffice. Also the road round the north coast of Skye. No wonder it’s not that populated. Well done to any locals there, I take my hat off!! I don’t recall last winter being that bad … maybe I’m just too old, and recall the freezes of years ago, and unbroken tarmac? ?

 

[Amarillo]

I don’t have many complaints about British roads.

But I have driven across Bulgaria from Greece to Romania on back roads…

 

[wildslammer22]

I don’t have many complaints about British roads.

But I have driven across Bulgaria from Greece to Romania on back roads…

I’m doing some work with a Bulgarian company at the moment. I was chatting to a colleague about our shared love of mountain walking. He lives in a village in the mountains outside Sofia and he told me that he carries a bear grenade when he hikes! I said I didn’t realise there were bears so close to Sofia and he replied they aren’t often seen as the never leave the mountain forests because the roads were so bad