Viewing 10 posts - 41 through 50 (of 50 total)
  • Why are British roads so bad?
  • Matt24k
    Free Member

    From a Google search:
    “The two most densely populated macro-countries in Europe are the Netherlands and Belgium with 394 and 344 people per square kilometer, respectively. However if England were an independent country it would be the most densely populated macro-nation in Europe with a whopping 407 people per square kilometre.”

    Dickyboy
    Full Member

    Lack of maintenance of the surface water drainage system is destroying roads local to us, blocked drains and ditches then exacerbate the water and freeze thaw damage, so short sighted 🙁

    unovolo
    Free Member

    Just drive on roads near where local councilors live, they always seem to be pretty good..

    True dat, some streets around our local area seem to get a lot more love than others even when they are apparently in good condition already.

    The street sign outside the corner of my house has been illegible for years(paint worn off) just prior to the recent elections lo and behold worken turn up to replace it and repair the broken up tarmac surrounding it, Coincidence?

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    mountainman
    Full Member

    andy4d – Member
    You should come over to Ireland. I need a mtb just to cycle on the roads they are so $hit.

    Agreed Andy4d my local single tracks around the forestry are better than our L roads here in south Kilkenny.

    For reference Irish |road grading :
    N = National roads Mostly good occasional potholes
    R = Regional roads Not so good regular potholes occasional top dressing .
    L = Local roads Mostly pot holes with patches of fill which squish out from tractor use and create lumps n bumps.

    oink1
    Free Member

    Round here they seem to wait until a particular stretch of road has a fatality before they do any repairs 😯

    allfankledup
    Full Member

    How come Welsh roads absolutley rock then? It cant all be eu money can it? Back from our annual jaunt there, aside from folk not wanting to use the passing places on the lanes in case they scratch the paint on their cars, the road surfaces were just amazeballs (word stolen from wife, not a pet name..)

    blakec
    Free Member

    A lot of It’s to do with minimum tyre depth the uk has a silly minimum figure of 1.5mm. While on the continent it’s 3mm plus. which means that on the continent they tyre displaces water rather than the asphalt which means the asphalt laid in the continent is more dense with less voids which stops water ingress which is one of the main reasons for potholes.

    That and both councils and highways England don’t like closing roads and if you are doing deep repair it needs the road closed for 24 hrs

    Also particularly in Germany construction contracts are awarded to the bidder that gets closed to to mean price. While the uk are all based on lowest price

    Also cars don’t damage the roads and the number of cars isn’t taken into account when designing a road. It’s the number of hgv’s and lgv’s that determin road design. Can’t remember but it’s something like one artic dose the same damage as 70,000 cars.

    But ultimately it comes to successive governments being to scared to increase tax to properably maintain the roads or telling us to replace our tyres more regularly

    TheBrick
    Free Member

    Worst roads I have experienced in Europe are the roads in Ukraine. Not even out in the sticks, Kiev.

    breatheeasy
    Free Member

    They did a stretch of my local Road ride last year. Was unbelievable – they literally just spread about 10mm of tarmac over the road, didn’t even bother to fill in any pot holes beforehand! Over winter it just crumbled away making it as bad as before.

    wordnumb
    Free Member

    Because moles.

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