Your opinions on the UK highways system.

[JonB]

What are your thoughts on the roads you drive and ride on today, have they got worse over time?

I've noticed especially on motorways that the inside lane is becoming almost unusable for both cars and bikes now due to the deepening grooves created by the huge amount of lorries that travel on these busy stretches everyday. I remember the M3 being quite bad at one point and now the M5 is really bad in places.

Now, lorries are an important instrument to keeping Britain running and so must stay on the roads, but surely there should be some investment on the main arteries of the highway? Another thing that gripes me about this is that since the expansion of the EU, the amount of lorries that are not from UK is almost at a 70/30 (with the 30% being foreign lorries) split I reckon now, yet they pay no taxes whatsoever to the road system apart from at the pumps, yet if our lorries are to go to mainland Europe they have to pay tolls? This isn't fair considering it's the extra lorries on the road which are causing the motorways to become in disrepair.

Why should we be moaning about the motorways? Because new countries in the EU get huge funding from the EU commitee for road building, go to Spain or Portugal and look at the roads there, beautifully tarmacced a dream to drive on, yet Britain is a huge contributor to the EU and we get naff all (The less said about the railways the better).

Off the motorways and what do you see? Potholes literally everywhere, now a lot of this is down to council management of the roads, but it is becoming disgusting, there has got to be statistics somewhere that prove that suspensions are being replaced much earlier.

TBH, riding on some of the roads now must surely be deadly to be riding on a bike, luckily our favourite roads are in the country where there is less traffic.

When Labour came to power in 1997 they pretty much scrapped all new roadbuilding schemes to save money, yet duty on pretty much everything road based has risen. IF they was SERIOUS about prohibiting climate change, surely improvements to the roads and infrastructure would do far more than taxing high polluting vehicles. Go on some of the major motorways today, the M6 around Birmingham is a nightmare, even after the M6Toll was introduced and the other day on the M40 towards London traffic was really heavy, and lets never forget the car park that is the M25 around Heathrow.

To me it seems like roadbuilding kinda stopped in the 1970's and now we are stuck with probably the worst roads in Europe and it seems there is going to be no improvement whatsoever. In the 1960's no-one batted an eyelid to knock down some trees and houses to build new motorways, now to get a bypass installed it takes 10 years of planning and protests from NIMBY's.

As we are all users of the road system you are bound to have your own opinions, i'd be interested to hear the stories from some of the more mature members who used the roads back 10/20 years ago to see if the roads really have got that bad.
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[TheDonUK]

The roads are decent enough, theres always room for improvement, and i would like to see more of the ridiculous amount of duty i pay on petrol go to repairing massive pot-holes...

But on the whole im more worried by the standard of road-user than that of the roads themsevles...

[ColdInsomnia]

Welcome to Rip Off Britain, where you can expect to pay more and more and more taxes, and receive less service.


Someone, somewhere, is making a fuckton of money of the British public, because honestly, it's a fucking mystery where our taxes go.
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[Endless Nameless]

Agree about the state on the inside lane of the M5- it's rubbish. Really bad in places.

Off the main roads it seems very council dependent. I've not done much driving/ riding round Devon/ Cornwall where I am now, but I seem to remember most Cornish roads being pretty good. Home in Gloucestershire the Council are a load of lazy pikey bastards and the roads are shite, subsidence, potholes, ruts etc on fairly major roads. And I'm fairly sure they have been partly responsible for several accidents- I know one kid at school rolled his car on one bad corner, and although he was inexperienced and driving like a div it must have contributed. Not done owt about it though except their usual repair- put up a sign saying either "temporary road surface" or "weather damaged road". Either way the sign will stay there for years, and nothing further will get done. Bloody annoying, when some other places (Ceredigion for one) have brilliantly maintained roads.
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[deanoet]

I would love to see how much they get in taxes from Petrol and Road tax a year, and how much of it actually goes back into improving the roads / public transport so less people use their own cars and reduce pollution which is apparently what they want

Sure people wouldnt mind as much the expensive petrol prices, and paying the road tax if we were driving around on perfect roads, and in the bigger cities where pollution and congestion is a problem the public transport is excellent and reliable

And that isnt even taking into account the money the councils get who have congestion charges in operation
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[Blink]

Our roads major are okay, infact they're pretty good!

What is wrong is:

Any cunt can afford to get a car and drive nowadays. And why not? Public transport, apart from major cities, is shite.

Cycle lanes are non-existant. It's a joke. Hell, I used to cycle to work everyday, and everymorning and evening was dicing with death.
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The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

[iooi]

They are not too bad, yes in places they need attention to get rid of the pot holes, and one of the biggest issues the dammed humps that appear at bus stops in hot weather.....
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Just because my bike was A DIVVY, does not mean i am......

[kawakid]

Lots of negative comments.

Having lived in Ireland, I can tell you UK roads are f****ing ace.

Just getting off the Ferry in Hollyhead and joining the smooth tarmac of the A55 brings massive relief, no more bouncy suspension.

When I lived in Ireland in the early 90s, all the roads went through town centres, ie virtually zero motorways. Only years later are there some bypasses and new roads being built But toll roads.
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I've a twin and a 4.

[Ste]

More traffic on the roads, lets go offroad.

[and]

...

[Walloper]

We are paying for Thatcher auld bastart's 'get it off the rails' campaign.
She put all rail freight on the roads increasing truck haulage which has led to more wear of our roads......
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W-ireless A-rtificial L-ifeform L-imited to O-bservation P-eacekeeping and E-fficient R-epair

[Noxious89123]

[Kickstart]

[Hetzer]

UK roads are a fvcking disgrace. The insult to the injury is the amount of money extorted from us under the guise of tax (road and gas) and how little of it is spent on them.

And then they cover them in salt and molasses every year because it's cheaper than what every other country uses (silicate).

Business as usual in the toilet of the civilised world.
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"There's the horizon! Ride hard, ride fast and cut down all who stand in your way!"

[chris-red]

Hetz you complain so much about near enough everything in England why haven't you moved somewhere else yet?
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[damz]

there are some horrific potholes in glasgow, the worst being in battlefield, luckily its located on the doorstep of the hospital, the dam thing is like 1 foot deep, i'l take a picture next time in in there. A friend of mine buckled his tyre going over a pothole at work

[D O G]

[chris-red]

[Walloper]

[iooi]

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

[DogHeadGod]

https://www.fillthathole.org.uk/

A cyclist website where you report it to them and they report it to whoever is reponsible ..potholes that is.

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

[DogHeadGod]

Glaswegians can also report it directly here https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/Residents/GettingAround/RALF/RalfApplication.htm

I'm sure all councils will have a similar site.

I'm off to email it to everyone I know because its a mess up here, and this patting in a bit of asphalt with a spade isn't doing the trick.

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]