OV9

A19 past Wolviston, massive improvement, mainly because they went from the 2 lanes of world’s noisiest piece of concrete to 3 lanes of pretty decent tarmac- however the extra lane was the biggest waste of money in the world as no fucker uses it and continues to do 55 in the middle lane

jamcg wrote: Fri Aug 23, 2024 11:22 am A19 past Wolviston, massive improvement, mainly because they went from the 2 lanes of world’s noisiest piece of concrete to 3 lanes of pretty decent tarmac- however the extra lane was the biggest waste of money in the world as no fucker uses it and continues to do 55 in the middle lane

People do need to be getting in the right lane to get onto the A66 six miles away though!

Road opposite my house would be suitable for a tank proving ground. It's pot hole central, with patch on patch on patch. Load of road workers turned up a few weeks ago. To redo the pavements (which are actually fine) and put new kerbstones in.

I noticed a nasty pothole on Harry's Garage GR Yaris video yesterday - on the corner where he squirts it up the hill, right in the middle of the road.

The roads do seem to be in an absolutely terrible state overall don't they. The road at the bottom of ours which goes up over the hill to Honor Oak is absolutely shocking. The link below has a good example of the patch on patch on patch of shitty repairs and this was last summer so you can imagine how much its degraded in the last 9 months of autumn/winter. There's about a mile stretch of this.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/cBbVc1wehLtNSZDR7

In urban areas with heavy bus traffic they seem to have completely disintegrated in parts. I wonder whether the modern breed of hybrid buses are heavier than previously and/or have different weight distribution which exacerbates this. Often in front of bus stops there will be double lines of wheel ruts where the road has sunk.

I mean, the roads have been bad for a few years now, but most recently they seem to have taken a turn for the much worse. Which I didn't think would be possible!

Cheshire East in particular is appalling. There are sections of primary A-road routes that have huge areas of top surface completely gone. I can only assume they don't count as potholes as they're not deep enough, but they proper 3rd world standard. Also not helped when the contractors make perfectly fine roads significantly worse:

https://www.wilmslow.co.uk/news/article ... low-bypass

I wouldn't mind either, but Cheshire East have resurfaced that dual-carriageway a couple of times int he last ten years now, using chippings, and successively made the surface worse not only from an NVH perspective, but also to drive one, with ruts forming with the result that it drags the car around. Meanwhile, on Stockport Council's section of the route they haven't done any resurfacing and the road is as good as when it was built in the mid-90s

It was a shock being back in Edinburgh last week. The pot holes were bad enough, but the council have clearly not put anything in the their budget for road paint in the last 10 years.

"Road markings worn"

It gives me a shred of comfort that autonomous cars will never be a thing in this country.

Ascender wrote: Fri Mar 28, 2025 8:10 am It was a shock being back in Edinburgh last week. The pot holes were bad enough, but the council have clearly not put anything in the their budget for road paint in the last 10 years.

I remember when I was in Germany in the past, seeing them repainting the lines. My Cousin who lives in Germany commented that before the winter, they go round repainting many lines so they're more visible in the dark/adverse conditions.

They've also got machinery to clean their road signs, so they never seem to be rusty or covered in lichen like the ones here.

This was a decent number of years ago though (~10), so it could be the case that they don't bother anymore

Mito Man wrote: Fri Mar 28, 2025 10:20 am "Road markings worn"

It gives me a shred of comfort that autonomous cars will never be a thing in this country.

Have you seen the Waymo Ford Mustangs being trialled around town at the moment?

Jimexpl wrote: Fri Mar 28, 2025 12:01 pm

Mito Man wrote: Fri Mar 28, 2025 10:20 am "Road markings worn"

It gives me a shred of comfort that autonomous cars will never be a thing in this country.

Have you seen the Waymo Ford Mustangs being trialled around town at the moment?

The ones which can’t avoid the comically large potholes and keep getting stuck when there’s no road markets, then get taken over by a human remotely?

Mito Man wrote: Fri Mar 28, 2025 10:20 am "Road markings worn"

It gives me a shred of comfort that autonomous cars will never be a thing in this country.

Never ceases to amaze me how many people bang on about driverless cars being the future, completely forgetting that they wouldn't stand a chance with the state of the decrepit UK road infrastructure

I often wonder how they would cope with the road at the end on our street. Dirt / dust at the side of the road, sometimes a rut, sometimes a graduated slope into the road. Sections with no markings where two normal cars being driven by people with decent judgement can pass just fine, other sections a little wider with a centre white line. No white lines at the edges anywhere.