Why don't the govt add 1p or 2p a litre to fuel.....

[helpimcrap]

.....which would to EXCLUSIVELY repairing the roads?

Forget emissions/car tax etc as cars are bad and breed unhealthy/lazy people full stop.

The only exception to that is distance or to do with work or people who are physically unable to etc (I'm on about the trips to the shop half a mile away).

My way of reckoning is if you put it on fuel then the people who use their cars the most pay to keep the roads maintained. Be that business users or private use. Obv people who need their car because of health would have a discount card exclusively registered to them and can only be claimed back with if the car, reg, Photo ID matches.

It really annoys me at the state of repairs and how long they last as it just seems like a bodge. We need to have people who actually take care and pride in their work. Compared to the likes of France where the worst road in 190 miles was better than the best road in England! And that was a dual carriageway!

We live in a society incredibly reliable on the car and a car used to be a luxury - now it's an essential. I just think priorities are wrong hence why we have an obesity crisis.

Sorry, thinking out loud and having a moan. lol

 

[geekman]

The main roads in France are indeed fantastic, but their country and inner city roads are overall worse than ours in my experience. British roads are nowhere near as bad as people make them out to be IMO.

 

[Hyburnate]

The main roads in France are indeed fantastic, but their country and inner city roads are overall worse than ours in my experience. British roads are nowhere near as bad as people make them out to be IMO.

Could have fooled me... Main roads and newly resurfaced roads are perfect (Northants people will know one road thats newish that is horrible and thats spencer bridge area) old back roads like residential estates are ****ing terrible.

People will moan either way, they'll moan if they don't get repaired and people will moan if it costs them. You can't win.

 

[helpimcrap]

The main roads in France are indeed fantastic, but their country and inner city roads are overall worse than ours in my experience. British roads are nowhere near as bad as people make them out to be IMO.

I disagree - motorways are ok. Main A roads are very poor and downright dangerous sometimes!

The amount of money wasted on temporary fixes is unreal I imagine!

 

[[TW]Fox]

British roads are nowhere near as bad as people make them out to be IMO.

Agreed. I often wonder if those who constantly bang on about how we have 'third world' roads have ever actually driven anywhere else. Our road network is excellent, everything from surface condition to road layout, road markings and sign posting is markedly better than most of the rest of the world. It's very easy to cherry pick example of excellence and use them to beat the UK with - German A roads for example are stunning - but that's somewhat missing the point.

If you want crap motorways try some of the Autobahns in Germany or the Interstates around New York or Los Angeles. You'll realise how much you miss the M1.

 

[helpimcrap]

As said motorways are fine because they do it properly and spend the money there.

It's just the roads to actually get to them.... I can count 100 potholes down a 2 mile stretch of road in Lutterworth for example. Think how much extra wear that would do to a car over time meaning they save money on maintenance (shock absorbers etc) by spending 1p or 2p extra a litre(which is extortionate anyway)?

I just think we do things the wrong way around.

 

[Janesy B]

Yeah we should have roads that we do 30 on perfect and smooth and leave all the potholes for the ones we do 70mph on

 

[geekman]

I disagree - motorways are ok. Main A roads are very poor and downright dangerous sometimes!

The amount of money wasted on temporary fixes is unreal I imagine!

I've never found A roads to be poor in any way - I guess it depends where you live? Around the south east they're mostly in decent condition - in other European countries (Italy springs to mind), it's quite common to find massive potholes on motorways, which is almost unheard of here.

 

[wesimmo]

It's the short sightedness of it all. Every year they come round our way and do a pathetic job of patching the same holes, it looks like they've poured some asphalt in there and patted it down with plastic sand castle spades, within 6 months they're all pot holes again.

 

[The_Abyss]

The whole concept of collecting taxes from a specific source to spend on a specific item is wholly flawed. All this nonsense about upping taxes on a certain group to spend on something else - it is just populist headlines.

It isn't used for income tax or corporation tax receipts, or pretty much any other tax. So why fuel? Many investments or improvements are subsidised by other forms of taxation. As an example, look at the tax / toll for key bridges and roads in the UK. They haven't turned out so well...

 

[Rroff]

Compared to many parts of the world we have good roads but around here they are generally in a state of disrepair and I think a lot of it is due to cheaping out.

So instead of say spending (completely illustrative figures) £1000 per square metre on something that lasts 10 years they are spending £400 per square metre on a cheaper alternative that only lasts say 2 years. (Purely made up but you get the sentiment).

The quality of the work and quality of the materials seems far short and seems to last far less time than what I remember in the past.

 

[Meridian]

So instead of say spending (completely illustrative figures) £1000 per square metre on something that lasts 10 years they are spending £400 per square metre on a cheaper alternative that only lasts say 2 years.

Vimes' Law of Economics: they don't have the money to spend £1000 per square metre. Mostly they don't have the money to spend £400 either. The OP's suggestion won't work because the roads are like the NHS: a bottomless pit for money. (And remember: for roads except A and motorways, the local council foots the bill, not the DoT). There' also a minor factor: generally a full repair causes a LOT more disruption than a quick one, and disruption is even less popular than potholes.

 

[233]

The problem is that local authorities rarely carry out the repairs themselves and contract the work out. So you have someone who doesn't care about the quality as long as it meets the bare minimum and gives them the most profits.

 

[leigh_boy]

The problem is that local authorities rarely carry out the repairs themselves and contract the work out. So you have someone who doesn't care about the quality as long as it meets the bare minimum and gives them the most profits.

I feel the same.
I hate how much fuel has gone up as well and i dont want to encourage them to put it up any more.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Because it won't be spent on the roads anyway?

 

[Semple]

The real solution would be to come up with a new alternative material to use on the roads. I think there is a company in the Netherlands who are trialling a plastic surface that should be impossible for general wear, also with solar panels to warm the surface during winter to prevent a build up of ice, and to power road markings underneath to make away with cat eyes. No idea how well the surface will survive in the event of a crash and fire/explosion.

They made an interesting statistic, something along the lines of car manufacturers have come so far in the last 30 years with the technology introduced to cars to make them safer etc. Yet the roads have rarely had any changes in the last 30 years.

 

[Puzzled]

Councils still wouldn't fix them properly, many of the causes for these pot holes are due to issues with the sub base or drainage Both of which are expensive and time consuming to fix.

Its far cheaper and easier to just slap a bit more asphalt on top rather than doing it properly and digging up a large section while the road is closed.

Also as tyre technology improves and grip levels go up, so does road wear. Particularly with HGVs, nice sticky tyres on them will quickly pull up loose asphalt caused by flooding / ice.

 

[Third Opinion]

Because it won't be spent on the roads anyway?

Exactly which is why I am dead against any increase taxes on the motorist.

All the hare brain schemes like 'pay as you drive' etc have nothing to do with congestion, environment or public transport subsidies they just go into the coffers to be wasted.

I simply do not trust it would be spent on what it should be.

 

[Conscript]

The problem is that local authorities rarely carry out the repairs themselves and contract the work out. So you have someone who doesn't care about the quality as long as it meets the bare minimum and gives them the most profits.

That's not necessarily true. The work is contracted out, yes, but not usually on the fly; the council will employ a term maintenance contractor. That is, a civil contractor who have a long term contract to carry out all maintenance works for the council in question.

When that contract comes up for renewal, it will often be tendered for, and in most cases, the tender will be judged on quality as well as price. So a contractor who has a poor maintenance record for the duration of their term might find themselves losing out when the contracts come up for renewal.

I actually find that road repairs carried out by the council/term contractor to be of good quality. The worst repairs are usually done by utility companies, who will come along, dig up the road, then hire the absolute cheapest contractor they can find to reinstate the repairs. These are usually the culprits in poor road surface conditions.

Also, there seems to be a lot of people bemoaning of the councils responsible in general here, but have you considered that they simply don't know that the roads are in need of repair? They can't monitor all the roads in their jurisdiction constantly and send out repair crews. I started using fixmystreet.com to report any potholes in my area and actually found that lots of things I reported where often fixed within a matter of weeks.

So rather than complaining, start reporting road defects and encourage others to do so. I'd wager your council might be quicker to repair them than you think and if they get lots of complaints, it will only serve to bolster their case for increased road repair budgets.

 

[shauncr91]

People who say the roads aren't as bad as people claim obviously haven't driven around Sheffield, they are among the worst roads I've seen anywhere in the country.