Looked at the pictures of "potholes". those aren't potholes, the top surface of the road is a bit worn. You want to come up north and look at the potholes we have, you can bath your dog in some of them.
Pothole campaigner sprays Surrey street with phallic paintings
A tarmac vigilante with a tin of spray paint has attempted to shame a local council into filling-in potholes in Cock Lane, Fetcham, England, by daubing penises the length of the thoroughfare. The irate road campaigner has been dubbed the Cock Lane Crusader, after spraying their penis images around the Surrey street’s notorious …
COMMENTS
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Thursday 24th March 2016 16:29 GMT Bc1609
Yeah, those aren't potholes. Try driving near the border between Kent and East Sussex - there are pretty massive chunks just missing for several feet in all dimensions and the roads are effectively single-lane. Being southern I'm sure they don't compare to your massive holes up North, which are used for housing entire families who work 72 hours a day for a florin and are grateful for the privilege, but it's pretty bad. I don't know whether it's a council-border issue (Kent and Sussex both claiming it's the other's responsibility) or what, but it's been like that for years. The cockwombler responsible for the doodles above is being rather petty.
Having said that, I've got a can of paint in the garage and it probably won't hurt to try and spur the council into action...
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Tuesday 29th March 2016 21:04 GMT DiViDeD
Re Kent and Sussex both claiming it's the other's responsibility
That'll be East Sussex holding it up then. There's a lot of old money in East Sussex, and I can remember, when I lived there, the local response to demands from HM Gov to make more land available for development (ie housing for new people coming in to OUR county) was a flurry of land sales involving foot square 'plots' being titled up and sold to the locals, just to make it harder for developers to buy building land.
A friend of mine travelled down from the Midlands and bemoaned the state of our roads: "Not a single dual carriageway or motorway, just narrow winding roads and high hedges. Why don't the council do something about the roads? You'd get far more visitors and it would open up the county to development."
I remember thinking "Yes, you kinda answered your own question there, didn't you?"
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Thursday 31st March 2016 11:50 GMT Triggerfish
Ha... you call that a pothole?
Well if we are going down that route, I used to live somewhere that after heavy rains I would have a slow drive round and check as potholes..... (ok chunks of road) deep and long enough to swallow a Toyota Hilux would often appear, usually at the bottom of steep roads with 90 degree bends.
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Saturday 26th March 2016 20:57 GMT Alan Brown
"You want to come up north and look at the potholes we have, you can bath your dog in some of them."
No need. Some of the Surrey potholes are just as bad. As you say, Cock Lane's just a bit worn, but when you have to spend £2k repairing the underside of a VW Polo after hitting a pothole masquerading as a puddle at under 20mph as one of my cow orkers recently did (2 broken wheels, front suspension ripped out), then you realise Surrey has a few contenders for "bad" (Bad enough that a cyclist died a few weeks ago after hitting one and being thrown - no cars involved).
I've actually had Surrey roads "engineers" tell me they know XYZ road is full of potholes but they have zero intention of fixing them as it slows traffic down. They also refuse to deal with overhanging vegetation which violate published highway authority limits, either flat-out denying a problem exists or saying cleaning up "would alter the character of the road" - a statement which is explicitly prohibited by Defra.
On an IT angle - there's the issue of dead street lights and blocked gulley traps which are not in the county database, can't be added and therefore can't be fixed - having been that way for years. Surrey have a habit of acknowledging, FOIs then "losing" them too.
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Tuesday 29th March 2016 12:48 GMT SImon Hobson
> ... when you have to spend £2k repairing ...
As long as you have evidence that the council knew about the pothole (and failed to repair it promptly) then they will pay out for repairs. They know that if you can't be fobbed off with the "nowt to do with us" type letters and you take them to court then they'll lose. But you (or your colleague) may have to persist a bit.
> I've actually had Surrey roads "engineers" tell me they know XYZ road is full of potholes but they have zero intention of fixing them
Which means they are automatically liable for any damage caused to vehicles as a result.
I know people who've had the council pay for new tyres and wheels.
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Thursday 24th March 2016 16:17 GMT djstardust
Councils
Funny how they can find £100k roles for "Diversity Manager" and "Language Translation Specialist" but when it comes to, you know, the things tax payers want there's no money.
Public toilets, Libraries, Swimming Pools, Roads ....
Aberdeen City Council has cut £900k from the sport and elderly care budgets, but found a million to put in a cycle lane no-one will use.
This country needs a revolution and soon.
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Thursday 24th March 2016 17:20 GMT frank 3
Re: Councils
Wow, they ploughed a whole 1.7% of their roads capex budget into bike facilities. The other £58m will be spent on new roads.
Yes, I can see why you are aggrieved.
Nevermind that most people don't bike in cities because they are scared to. So, separating out cars and bikes will encourage cycling: reducing congestion and therefore is a win-win for both driver and cyclist. You are definitely right to be angry.
How does one spell 'massively entitled bellend' again?
Oh: just like that.
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Thursday 24th March 2016 17:52 GMT JC_
Re: Councils
Aberdeen City Council has cut £900k from the sport and elderly care budgets, but found a million to put in a cycle lane no-one will use.
No-one? The count of cyclists in Aberdeen was up 23% in 2014; decent cycling infrastructure results in more cycling, which means less pollution, fewer road deaths, and a healthier (and wealthier) population.
It's beyond ironic to bitch about cycling on an article about potholes when road damage caused by a vehicle is proportional to the the fourth-power of the vehicle axle weight.
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Thursday 24th March 2016 18:50 GMT petur
Re: Councils
djstardust probably forgets that every bike on the road is one less car in front of you in the traffic jam.
But do motorist thank us for that? Nahhh....
We should organise a yearly use-the-car day where everybody leaves their bike on the side and comes by car. Worst traffic jams ever....
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Thursday 24th March 2016 20:29 GMT JC_
Re: Councils
"it is slow and you worry for the fuckers"
It's kind of you to worry about people on bicycles, AKA mums, dads, friends, colleagues, children and other assorted fuckers.
The fact is that traffic here in London moves no faster than horse-drawn carriages did a century ago; in fact, a running chicken out-paces drivers and bicycles certainly do as well.
You may feel that cyclists are holding you up, but they aren't, other drivers going nowhere fast in their cars are.
As Chris Boardman says, cycling is just a means to an end: space (and time) efficient, reliable, cheap and healthy urban transportation. It should be supported because it's the best way to achieve this goal. You may disagree, but if you do, what is your alternative plan?
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Thursday 31st March 2016 11:57 GMT Triggerfish
Re: Councils 0x407ab506
I think it depends where you are, I have certainly ridden in some places where you need to take up that space, just so that people do not end up driving through you without seeing you, don't blame cyclists for taking up the road in those circumstances, blame shit drivers who are incapable of payig attention and have a lot of ego over their rights on the road.
Same time I have seen the taking up the road thing and dawdling done when uneeded and often have a little daydram about running them down.
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Friday 25th March 2016 12:16 GMT The First Dave
Re: Councils
"It's beyond ironic to bitch about cycling on an article about potholes when road damage caused by a vehicle is proportional to the the fourth-power of the vehicle axle weight."
Not really - that just goes to show that cars do no significant damage if a road has been constructed well enough for busses to run on them. Not that they always are, but still.
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Thursday 24th March 2016 18:05 GMT Arthur the cat
Re: At least it wasn't the GoatSex guy.
If you REALLY want to force them to do something about the road, then doodle the Goatsex image around the pothole instead.
I wonder if it's possible to get a mobile large format inkjet printer that will work on any surface. We've got some huge potholes round here that are 5/6 years old with nothing done about them.
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Thursday 24th March 2016 21:51 GMT Captain DaFt
Re: At least it wasn't the GoatSex guy.
"We've got some huge potholes round here that are 5/6 years old with nothing done about them."
Just do what everybody else does, plant trees!
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Friday 25th March 2016 13:39 GMT Peter Simpson 1
Re: At least it wasn't the GoatSex guy.
goatse.cx...mobile large format inkjet printer...
I think the solution is simpler: a single stencil of a grasping hand, applied to each side of the pothole.
Use only the amount of technology necessary to adequately address the problem, and no more.
// rattling cans and pain splotches, please
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Friday 25th March 2016 17:53 GMT allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
Re: Large format ink jet printer
"I wonder if it's possible to get a mobile large format inkjet printer that will work on any surface."
Try the So Nice Development Facadeprinter, I guess it could be modified to your needs.
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Friday 25th March 2016 12:26 GMT TRT
Re: @TRT, tell me...
@Hollerithevo
I find that having a sense of humour is the most important aspect of interpersonal relationships, not the occasional pee in a roadside lav. Mind you, hanging around public conveniences too often could lead to uncomfortable questions from your partner. Or the law in George Michael's case.
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Thursday 24th March 2016 16:24 GMT PaulAb
You call those potholes!.. Eeee when I was a lad....
We 'ad to climb down pot'ole pickup t' horse that fell in it brush it off and carry on further daaan t' road t' fall in t' next one, and do t' same again, then go home and get thrashed ba' me dad's tarmac shovel, then we 'ad 'ovis for tea before the pre-bed time thrashing with t' shovel again.
Or grandad lived in pot'ole he loved it, Council came t' repair it'- 'e wouldn't get out so they dug him in as well, We all laughed about that.
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Thursday 24th March 2016 16:34 GMT Anonymous Coward
They are not pot holes. I think the person who did this has made a cock of himself.
Is that what constitutes a pot hole darn sarf? Ours oop north look like sink holes compared to those.
Looks like first world problems to me and considering the houses go for 500k I can imagine the residents are worried that their tires might get scuffed on the massive 4x4 they use for the school run to go round the corner for little tarquin and porcha.
Time for a pie butty I think with loads of gravy.
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Thursday 24th March 2016 17:38 GMT Montreal Sean
Montreal has potholes with little bits of road around them.
Here in Montreal we get proper potholes that snap axles.
Every few weeks during the winter the city sends out patching trucks that drop in some hot asphalt and pat it flat.
Two days later the pothole is back, only this time it is accompanied by a big chunk of asphalt that cars can knock around.
Some day maybe the city will wake up and spend the money it needs to fix our crumbling infrastructure. No one should have to worry about pieces of elevated road breaking off and falling on the cars driving below.