Flooded rural roads and the impact flooding has on them.

[Wobbly John]

 The majority of potholes around here are previous repairs. One that was repaired almost 3 months after reporting, lasted 5 days, and the cricket-ball-sized lump left in the bottom of the hole chiselled the hole deeper as traffic went over it.

There is noticeably less camber on roads now, and drainage gullies are cleared less often. Also rural roads aren't cleaned making them narrower - even when they are resurfaced they don't clear the build-up of mud at the sides. On my commute, I can see 2 previous white line highway boundaries outside the current one - in places the road is half a metre narrower each side. Combined with the growing width of vehicles, this is putting cyclists in danger.

[Adam]

On my last holiday to the Netherlands back in October, I did quite a bit of cycling in the countryside around Leiden.  In the 2 weeks we were there, I spotted the grand total of 1 pothole.

The UK has other priorities.

[Frank9755]

When I cycled across Australia from West to east the first pothole I saw was approaching Adelaide, so after half way.

Different climate but not without it's own challenges...

[sparklyfish]

I don't think one can even put it all down to less spending (though some of it, yes). I think the quality of work here is lower, in general, & local authorities who are the customers accept that low quality.

Yes, absolutely this! It seems really obvious to me when audaxing - no doubt everyone has a county near them where the quality of repairs is markedly different. I'm in Cambridgeshire and notice it mostly riding in Essex - it just looks as though the Essex county council/highways team have retained a level of skill and knowledge on doing repairs properly. Whereas Cambs invested in the dreadful Dragon Patcher which poos hot tarmac into holes and everyone hopes for the best. During the first lockdown, we watched the Dragon Patcher doing our street. As big as a bin lorry, it made a great big noise, smoke and steam like a dragon, and farted out a tiny little stream of hot tarmaccy lumps through a nozzle like an inverse of the noo-noo from the Tellytubbies.
Chasing it slowly down the street was a street sweeper vehicle, which swept swept all of the Dragon Patcher doings into the drains at the edge of the road. 

[bhoot]

Yes, absolutely this! It seems really obvious to me when audaxing - no doubt everyone has a county near them where the quality of repairs is markedly different. I'm in Cambridgeshire and notice it mostly riding in Essex - it just looks as though the Essex county council/highways team have retained a level of skill and knowledge on doing repairs properly.

In general Essex is pretty good. I have not been riding there much recently but a few years' ago the difference between lanes in Essex and Kent (being in East London means we can easily head in either direction) was very noticeable. 

[Ian H]

Many years ago one of the managers of Devon Highways told me that they would ba able to work much more efficiently if it wasn't for having to dash between repairs in different parts of the county at the behest of local councillors and other 'eminent' folk.

[rafletcher]

I think it’s mainly a downward pressure on costs. Repairs are delegated / farmed out to contractors. To get the work they put in low bids, and them pay the self-employed gangs (around here they seem recently to be Romanian - very polite and helpful, capable of good work given the resources as has been shown by the Gigaclear operations) minimum wage in order to maximise profits. This leaves little money available for pay and materials so repairs are skimped and rushed.

[Ian H]

Every so often, around here, a lane that has apparently been abandoned for years, and degraded to MTB territory, will suddenly receive a complete makeover and become a smooth tarmacked delight to ride on.  One I'm thinking of goes past no houses, though there are shooting fields next to it.

[Kim]

Every so often, around here, a lane that has apparently been abandoned for years, and degraded to MTB territory, will suddenly receive a complete makeover and become a smooth tarmacked delight to ride on.  One I'm thinking of goes past no houses, though there are shooting fields next to it.

This always seemed to me how they do road maintenance in Wales.  I reckon it makes for higher quality road surfaces for cycling on average, with most of the potholes concentrated in stretches of really bad road, rather than endless patching.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

I do miss the superb French roads in the Limousin. Of course traffic was far lighter but it was extraordinary how often they were resurfaced. 

The roads in towns and villages had a different budget so were almost invariably not as good.  My experiences are now rather dated, it must be said. I last cycled in France in 2022 over the Alpes, but haven't been in the Limousin since 2019.

York city roads have become appalling over winter.

[mzjo]

I do miss the superb French roads in the Limousin. Of course traffic was far lighter but it was extraordinary how often they were resurfaced. 

The roads in towns and villages had a different budget so were almost invariably not as good.  My experiences are now rather dated, it must be said. I last cycled in France in 2022 over the Alpes, but haven't been in the Limousin since 2019.

York city roads have become appalling over winter.

Having spent just over 6 weeks stuck in Oxfordshire this winter I was horrified at the quantity of traffic (and most of that time Oxford was properly flooded as well). Rural roads in the Limousin don't start to compare, even though they don't get any maintenance worth speaking of. When the contractors get going, as in a lot of villages (and don't forget, an english rural village is about the size of a major town in Limousin; imagine a world with only one of your villages per county!) the quality of the work - and even if it gets finished in a respectable time frame - depends a lot on financing (and whether the deputé or his mates have property near by - financing again in a sort of way!). Javerlhac (pays Nontronnais, Dordogne not Haute Vienne if you want to split hairs) is a mess because the town didn't have the financing to finish burying cables and redoing the drains.
 There are a lot of rural villages and small towns that have simply done complete make-overs (with associated traffic calming features) rather than repairing roads. This causes inconveniences to the local traffic that the majority of english councils cannot allow (if they want to stay in power) but seems to be tolerated (within limits and levels of grumbling) in most of rural France. Really it's simply not possible to compare France and UK on road wear. However there are a number of our (french) roads that are living on borrowed time - and in Limoges that time has already been used up (and I can't really blame the conservative mayor, his socialist predecessor was in power a long time and was no better!)

[ElyDave]

Yes, absolutely this! It seems really obvious to me when audaxing - no doubt everyone has a county near them where the quality of repairs is markedly different. I'm in Cambridgeshire and notice it mostly riding in Essex - it just looks as though the Essex county council/highways team have retained a level of skill and knowledge on doing repairs properly.

In general Essex is pretty good. I have not been riding there much recently but a few years' ago the difference between lanes in Essex and Kent (being in East London means we can easily head in either direction) was very noticeable.

not sure I'd agree with that, I've ridden some utter shite in both Essesx and Cambs. Norfolk and Suffolk this weekend also demonstrating the problem pretty well.  My moment of pleasure was close to home when I remembered a previous closure and thought "this was the worst stretch before" as I rode on without having to swerve round the crap.