Here in the UK we're all used to potholes, roadworks, and weeds growing all over our roads and pavements.
We pay £190 per annum in Road Tax for our cars, plus of course Tax on Petrol/Diesel. With around 41 Million cars on our UK roads, the Road Tax alone brings in nearly £8 Billion.
This sign (below) was seen here in Brighton. Some scallywag has made his opinion very clear.
Regardless of all this money going into the coffers, they seem unable to look after our roads properly.
Maybe we should ALL refuse to pay our Road Taxes, buy a few bags of DIY Tarmac from B & Q, and go fill in all the potholes ourselves. We could have the country pothole-free after just a day or so.
There are simply too many cars and too many people living on this small island. I am still avoiding potholes that I've been avoiding for several years.
They simply do not care!
You'd think a wide vehicle like a bus could avoid potholes but no. Combined with a rubbish suspension system , your spine takes a hammering on our local Arriva buses. We used to have 3 buses an hour,now only 1. I mostly walk to town anyway.About a mile.
ReplyDeleteAnd every time a bus hits a pothole, it makes it worse.
DeleteThe roads here are pretty good. We have road inspection folk who come out about twice a year and look for holes in the road. They come out five at a time then get a couple of blokes with a truck full of tarmac to fill them in. Of course it's wasteful as if they had the same number of fillersin as inspectors then the carriageways could be perfect..........That's gubermint for you........No joined up thinking or precious little thinking at all.
ReplyDeleteWell, you're very lucky. I know of one major pothole on a busy road that has been there for at least 4 years. Everyone now knows that it's there, and swerves to avoid it. I just cannot understand why no-one does anything about it.
DeleteWe've had some workmen spraying white paint around the potholes. In theory this is so the repair gang can find them. They are never filled correctly so they reappear very quickly.
ReplyDeleteI recently wrote to our council (including photo) about a hole not far from my garage. It's not a pothole as such, but the road is sinking above an old repair of some sort. I can imagine it getting deeper and deeper until goodness knows what will happen. The council didn't reply, nor have they done anything about it.
DeleteIt is a cunning plan to encourage people to ditch their cars and walk everywhere.
ReplyDeleteHere in Brighton I think that is so. They HATE cars.
DeleteOur council have just spent goodness know how much resurfacing a road near us that was perfect already as far as I could see!! ( I saw the signs saying it was to be done and checked beforehand)
ReplyDeleteThat sounds typical. Did you check to see if the newly repaired road was where a senior councillor lives?
DeleteSame here Cro, it would be very useful if they could say WHERE the road was actually closed...around here the signs are up for around 10 miles BEFORE the actual closure, so nobody takes any notice of them!
ReplyDeleteThat was the case above. The sign was several hundred yards from the work.
DeleteWhew, I can empathize. South Carolina has TERRIBLE roads. Just terrible. If you get on the interstate and head north, as soon as you cross the North Carolina state line the roads become smooth and nice.
ReplyDeleteIn France we have wonderful roads, even the small inter-village roads are mostly perfect. The big motorways are usually reasonably quiet too. Why can't they do it here!
DeleteLove the sign!! I bet the strong words made many people happy. Someone wrote what everyone else was thinking.
ReplyDeleteOur roads are slowly being fixed and resealed. For years potholes we're just filled in with cement and quickly returned to potholes.
Here it's almost as if the let it all go to pot for far too long, and now they simply can't catch up with the repairs.
DeleteSame story here in the States. Have seen photos of potted plants set in holes.
ReplyDeleteWith some of the potholes we have here, you could plant TREES.
DeleteIt is some of the same we here in the U.S. had finally gotten enough of , that won the new president his position.
ReplyDeleteHe isn't a politician from birth,he is a businessman who has made profits , so we know he knows how to do it. We are hoping for the best. Thanks. Love the sign...hopefully it brightened some folks days, because it won't make anyone do anything about it, as you said, they just don't care. They have their jobs and no one to tell them what to do.
I loved the sign too. I noticed yesterday that it had been removed. I wonder why?
DeleteIt took more time to remove the sign than to fix the bloody road. ;)
DeleteThe ****ing road may be closed again but you can bet your life that nobody will be working up ahead.
ReplyDeleteThat reminds me of French motorways. Occasionally we will come across signs saying 'work ahead', and cones will ensure that for the next 5 kms we all use just one lane. There's never a workman in sight!
DeleteIf the roads are not getting repaired, where is all the road tax money going?
ReplyDeleteIn Massachusetts we have a "Safe Streets" program whereby road engineers work with elected officials/townspeople and draw a plan to improve roads. The program/state government picks up a big chunk of the costs and the local taxpayers provide some funds too. It works pretty well.
That's what SHOULD happen here too, but it doesn't. Some of our main roads are appalling.
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