Something positive we can do to make cycling safer.

[mjr]

Had to make a long car journey last week and even the A roads and motorways are full of holes. It's absurd. Hitting a crater at 70mph?

You do know you're meant to be able to stop within what you can see to be clear, right? So slowing enough to soften the blow or steer around it should be trivial.

But I have been surprised by a few this winter where it looked like slowing to 45 would be sufficient but the suspension still hit the stops.

Near me, the freeze-thaw cycles and the gritting and grinding has given a couple of A roads a sharp gravel top layer where old tar & chip cheapo resurfacing has come unstuck and motorists cornering too damn fast are gradually throwing the chips up onto the cycleways. So I've just bought a new tyre after a sharp chipping put a 10×2mm hole centre tread, straight through the anti-puncture belt, cutting the carcass. 🙁

 

[Binky]

You do know you're meant to be able to stop within what you can see to be clear, right? So slowing enough to soften the blow or steer around it should be trivial.

If in dark and raining so potholes likely partially filled with water then no it's not always possible to see them.

 

[annedonnelly]

But I have been surprised by a few this winter where it looked like slowing to 45 would be sufficient but the suspension still hit the stops.

The road to our (half a dozen) houses is in a shocking state with potholes and areas of permanent flood. But I'm the only resident who slows to less than 30 to drive along it.

 

[winjim]

You do know you're meant to be able to stop within what you can see to be clear, right? So slowing enough to soften the blow or steer around it should be trivial.

Oh that's fine then.

 

[mjr]

No, it's not fine, but generations of idiots have built more roads and not set taxes to maintain them all well enough, while allowing more and heavier vehicles, so it's entirely predictable there will be potholes and highways departments will be playing catch-up in winter.

If in dark and raining so potholes likely partially filled with water then no it's not always possible to see them.

If you can't even see if there's a farking road surface, slow the fark down or expect no sympathy. Unless it's because your headlights or glasses need fixing.

Report the potholes on cycle routes. They'll ignore them else.

 

[Binky]

No, it's not fine, but generations of idiots have built more roads and not set taxes to maintain them all well enough, while allowing more and heavier vehicles, so it's entirely predictable there will be potholes and highways departments will be playing catch-up in winter.


If you can't even see if there's a farking road surface, slow the fark down or expect no sympathy. Unless it's because your headlights or glasses need fixing.

Report the potholes on cycle routes. They'll ignore them else.

So you're saying when driving you can see and avoid every pothole?
Sorry but that's not realistic in some situations.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

If you can't even see if there's a farking road surface, slow the fark down or expect no sympathy. Unless it's because your headlights or glasses need fixing.

We often have large areas of standing water in my area, I call them small lochs lol
As a regular cycle commuter I know where most potholes are on my routes.
I can understand a new to the area driver not knowing.
On top of that, sometimes the standing water is so large that one must go through it, potholes underneath or not, no matter if you're on a bike or in a car.

 

[mjr]

So you're saying when driving you can see and avoid every pothole?
Sorry but that's not realistic in some situations.

You seem to have missed me repeatedly giving the alternative of slowing down to soften any impact. Are you the sort of motorist who aims for the speed limit regardless, or are you better than that?

Driving safely on damaged road is not unrealistic: being able to drive safely through such common hazards is a minimum requirement of a driving licence, the National Standard for Driving. Unit 4.2: Minimise risk when driving, if you want to refresh.

 

[mjr]

On top of that, sometimes the standing water is so large that one must go through it, potholes underneath or not, no matter if you're on a bike or in a car.

Sure, I've done this too, dipping a foot to the ankle a few times, as a last resort when the detour is long and likely to also be flooded. But we try to aim for where the potholes are least likely to be and slow down so hitting one shouldn't be a catastrophic crash, don't we? Drivers should do the same, not rush in and then expect sympathy when that recklessness breaks their beloved car.

And then you report it to the highways department with the magic words "standing water" so they fix it quickly.

 

[matticus]

Two things can be true at once:
- a competent driver should slow down sufficiently for any hazard, where apporpriate; and
- statistically, if you flood a load of roads, more competent* drivers will have mishaps than before the floods.

(You could write a similar thing for cyclists. )

*Yes even the competent ones. God help the "average" driver!

 

[T4tomo]

You seem to have missed me repeatedly giving the alternative of slowing down to soften any impact. Are you the sort of motorist who aims for the speed limit regardless, or are you better than that?

Driving safely on damaged road is not unrealistic: being able to drive safely through such common hazards is a minimum requirement of a driving licence, the National Standard for Driving. Unit 4.2: Minimise risk when driving, if you want to refresh.

Absolutely right, you should be doing <35mph in the middle lane of M11 in the dark, just to make sure you can see the potholes.

 

[mjr]

Absolutely right, you should be doing <35mph in the middle lane of M11 in the dark, just to make sure you can see the potholes.

Be serious. If the M11 has enough water on it to cause spray, they put it on warning signs with a 40mph limit. If it flooded so much we can't see potholes, we won't be doing 40 on it legally. If not a really low limit, they'd probably close it and dump all traffic onto other roads.

 

[All uphill]

Two things can be true at once:
- a competent driver should slow down sufficiently for any hazard, where apporpriate; and
- statistically, if you flood a load of roads, more competent* drivers will have mishaps than before the floods.

(You could write a similar thing for cyclists. )

*Yes even the competent ones. God help the "average" driver!

But all drivers are above average, aren't they?

 

[Binky]

Be serious. If the M11 has enough water on it to cause spray, they put it on warning signs with a 40mph limit. If it flooded so much we can't see potholes, we won't be doing 40 on it legally. If not a really low limit, they'd probably close it and dump all traffic onto other roads.

You seem desperate to prove a point here. If you seriously think even the most careful and competent driver has never gone over an unseen pothole then you haven't driven much is only conclusion I can come to.
Either that or the roads must be in great condition where you drive.

I've just done a 200mile trip today(unfortunate but unavoidable) and I was extra careful driving as this thread was in my thinking and even then it was impossible to avoid every bit of damage on the road, be it motorway, A road or B roads. This was in a variety of conditions from heavy rain to bright sunshine.
Now you may think I'm just not competent or observant etc but seeing as potholes are the bane of many road users lives be they motorists, cyclists and even horse riders etc then I think if they were that easy to spot and avoid them then how come so many don't. As for reducing speed, yes that's quite easy at less than 40mph speed say but at motorway speeds in heavy traffic not so much.

I'm not after an argument here but I honestly don't think you are being realistic. I'd also say the issue isn't so much with drivers but fact the roads are so bad that it's unavoidable.

 

[Jenkins]

A bit of a mixed result from my reports to the Council on Wednesday - no response yet to two pothole reports, one "Added to inspection programme" as has the badly churned up road edges while the damaged signs have been barriered off but not updated on the system.