Avoiding potholes

Slight puddle before.
could get worse over winter

I've mentioned before that Dutch roads and cycle-paths don't often suffer from potholes. There's currently a patch of slightly rough surface between our home and the local shops, but that's as bad as it gets. I can't think of any actual potholes on any roads or cycle-paths that we use.

The reason, of course, is that standards of maintenance are very good.

A one metre wide part dug out to the depth of 4 cm over the
crack, two metres square over the depression. After digging,
this was sealed before filling.

A good example of this happened this week on a residential street near where we live. It's not a through route by car, but it is by bike and I ride there quite frequently as it's on the route to the post office. This street had a crack all the way across its surface which recently became noticeable by bike. There was also a growing depression which started to form a puddle. None of this was unpleasant to cycle over, and it was certainly not something you'd swerve to miss. In any case, there are almost never cars on this street, so the situation was never dangerous. However, if this had been left as we go into winter then ice would have formed in it and made the problem worse. Therefore it was fixed as you can see in this video:

Afterwards

Potholes are hazardous for all road users, but they are particularly dangerous for cyclists because of their potential to cause a crash should you ride through them and the need to swerve to avoid them.

It is better if problems with potholes are avoided by fixing the potholes than by expecting people to cycle around them, especially on busy roads.

A footnote to the blog: Is there any end to people thinking that I want to do their work for them for nothing ? Now Transport for London expects me to work for free.

Potholes on Britain's roads. Some things never change

I read a while ago that Britain's roads now have a pothole every 120 yards. I can believe it, given the state that the roads seem to be in over there. Now that we're accustomed to Dutch roads, British roads which appear on the TV always look rather badly maintained.

This is a regular topic on British cycling blogs, and the stories keep coming up. There were claims over the last year that London's potholes increased markedly over winter and that there could well be in excess of 2 million nationwide. That article points to the high level of motor dependence in the UK as a reason why the country suffers so badly from potholes.

It's clearly a big problem, but is it being addressed ? Rather, there seems to be a problem of people trying to talk themselves out of having to fix these problems. What actually counts as "a pothole" in British roads ? Gloucestershire says that a hole needs to be "the depth of a "golf ball" (1.6in, 40mm) and the width of a 'large dinner plate' (11.8in, 300mm)" before it is regarded as needing to be repaired, while Suffolk says "unless the defect is on a minor road, when it must be about the size of a "dustbin lid" (23.6in, 600mm) to warrant urgent action."

The terrible quality of surfaces is yet another problem for cyclists in the UK, who almost always have to "share such roads" with a lot of motor vehicles. There are documented examples of riding through potholes causing death to cyclists, and also of swerving to avoid them having the same effect. When not lethal, injuries can be extremely unpleasant and painful, and result in claims against councils. I was lucky enough never to fall due to a pothole in the UK, but nasty jarring bumps when riding on busy roads did nothing to enhance my cycling.

And what's happening about it ? Well, in London funding for fixing potholes has been cut.

Here in Assen (and I think it's pretty much standard Dutch policy as I've seen it elsewhere), defects which occur on the roads due to winter conditions are patched up even before the ice has melted. That's what you see in this photo from our local newspaper (from last winter, that's how long ago I started this post.

However, the city also has a policy of renewing whole road surfaces before problems occur. There is a rolling programme where road (and cycle path) surfaces are resurfaced every few years - and this isn't only a skim over the top but involves digging down and replacing what's under the surface as well. When this is done, the work is synchronized with the gas, electric, telephone and other companies to prevent it being dug up again soon afterwards.

Cycle paths of course don't suffer from the same degree of damage because they don't have heavy vehicles on them. Most are exactly the same as before winter, and of course nice new smooth surfaces like this remain nice and smooth.

Why isn't the same thing done in the UK ? Why are the roads in a mess ? It's not a new problem. John Lennon wrote way back in 1967 about there being "4000 holes in Blackburn Lancashire".

The photo at the top, of a large pothole on a British road, comes from the Guardian article. As it happens, someone who I used to work for also just blogged on potholes, from a totally different perspective.

A bit of maintenance

I recently noticed that a bumpy spot on a cycle path and a rough path on a road nearby had both been marked for repair. Both marks appeared on the same day, and were in the same style, so presumably they were to be addressed at the same time.




On the left is the road and on the right is the cycle path. Minor damage which might not have been noted in other countries, or may have been left to grow into a pothole, is marked for repair.



A few days later, this is the situation.



And finally here it is after the work has been completed. In both cases, the surface is back to being completely smooth.

Now here's the point of this blog. Cycle paths and roads are treated equivalently. Both are maintained to a high standard, by the same people, with the same equipment. Both repairs come out of the maintenance budget. Cycle path repairs don't come out of the "cycling budget", which is around 30 euros per person per year and spent on new infrastructure, not fixing the old.

This is all a world away from the situation I was used to in the UK, where in fact it's quite likely that this level of damage to the surface would not have been considered to be enough to warrant repair in the first place.

The photo of the machinery and workmen was taken in the same place at the same time as the middle photos were taken.