I'm so glad you've brought this up. More and more i'm seeing smooth roads around here being overlaid with the cheap gravel stuff. i'm seriously considering writing the council to complain, but not sure how much good it will do, for the following reasons.
1. It's dangerous to cyclists because the gravel collects where cars push it to the side and on corners. particularly dangerous to cyclists on corners.
2. it's dangerous to cyclists because lorry tyres grip it and rip it up within a week leaving long stretches of tyres tracks in the road, making steering dodgy.
3. Because of it's loose surface, water gets in, freezes in the cold and lo and behold a pot hole appears, not only wasting my tax money but making it dangerous to cyclists.
4. It hides dangerous dips and lumps in roads because of the "speckled" surface which basically acts as a camouflage.
5. Not only does the freezing water produce potholes, but deep cracks and crevaces [sp??] that stretch across the road which you can't avoid.
Basically, i'm going to write to my MP about this because not only, as a tax payer, do i believe it is a blatant waste of my money, because it's just a cheap short term fix, but it's highly dangerous to cyclists and discourages people from cycling (green eco issue). o yea, did i mention that cars kick up the gravel into your eye??