‘Gone to pot’ say 96% of road users

Professor Stuart Cole, CBE. Emeritus Professor of Transport Economics and Policy, Prifysgol de Cymru / University of South Wales

Road users have complained about road surfaces since the stage coach carried wealthier passengers over what were no more than cart tracks.

The turnpike (tolled) tarmac-surfaced roads brought some relief on major routes (such as parts of the current A40 and A55).

Public expectations

Although road surface materials have improved, over the last two decades surface condition has deteriorated in Wales and the UK as a whole.

The travelling public have high expectations and strong views about where they operate their vehicles and expect high quality surfaces on roads, cycleways and footways.

A UK Department for Transport report (2012) showed that 97% of road users put potholes as the most unacceptable aspect of driving conditions.

By  March 2025 the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) showed 96%  had the same view.

When drivers were asked about their top priorities 45% put road surface condition; beaten only by fuel cost, 68%, and above road congestion at 23% (Ipsos Mori 2011).

Welsh Government has partly followed these views in its highway capacity policy but not pressed sufficiently into road surface quality.

Indeed while more people were satisfied with bus services and traffic congestion than were dissatisfied; the reverse was true for road condition with 59% dissatisfied and 26% satisfied.

Not only are we dissatisfied with the surface, fifty-eight per-cent of us are dissatisfied with the quality of repair to damaged roads and pavements (22% satisfied) and sixty-nine per-cent dissatisfied with the time taken to carry out the work (15% satisfied).

Causes of the deterioration

The number of vehicles on Wales’ roads continues to increase, thus creating greater pressure on the surface.

Satnav techniques can direct heavy good vehicles onto unsuitable ‘B’ , ‘C’, or unclassified roads where the surface has not been built to withstand such weights.

The biggest issue is undoubtedly financial. Quick-fix pothole filling is an attractive low-cost proposition for a cash strapped local authority (who own local roads) or Welsh Government (who own the national road and motorway network).

Potholes often arise from this kind of road surface maintenance. I recently spent time with pothole teams in south Wales to understand the sharp end of pothole removal.

Once created, a small pothole worsens through constant buffeting by vehicles and more tar particles are ripped off from around the edges.

They seem to appear in front of us on regular trips as the normal trajectory of our vehicles hits constantly at that weak surface point. Water gets under the tar surface, and in winter freezes, expands and pushes up the surface until it breaks.

Some potholes, seen as particularly dangerous, may be roughly plugged with tar as a ‘quick fix’ low-cost solution.

Even if a section of road is repaired, often only a sealing solution is applied. If the more robust bitumen seal is not put around the edge of the surface repairs, then tyres hit the looser material edge, there is a vicious circle effect with the damage process repeated.

Consequently, the repair work may become largely undone. Though it saves costs at the time, not doing this is a longer-term false economy

Pothole repair is labour-intensive and slow, thus increasing labour costs and delays to motorists, and resulting in an increasing backlog.

New machinery such as the JCB Pothole Pro can reduce the time taken but a team also spends time setting up safety warning signs on approaches to the work site, laying, flattening and rolling new tar into the hole and sealing the new surface edges.

Safety consequences

While potholes may damage the wheels and tyres of a four-wheeled vehicle, generally the damage is financial. For two-wheeled users – cyclists and motor cyclists – it can result in serious injury and may prove fatal so cannot be ignored.

If government is serious about persuading more people to cycle or walk rather than drive then roads have to be perceived as safe to cycle on.

At present drivers see crater infested roads and feel safer in their cars. Cycleways in general have better quality surfaces because the tarmac depth is only slightly less compared with roads when the weight and volume of traffic is considered.

One does therefore wonder why some cyclists continue to use roads rather than parallel cycleways

Cost consequences – highway authorities

As with most transport issues involving the public sector, lack of funding is often the root cause. Local authorities are required by law to maintain the highway but to what standard is not too clear.

The legal requirement loses its relevance when we consider the sums involved.

The March 2025 ALARM survey report gives no relief to road users. Seventeen per cent of Wales’ roads have less than five years structural life remaining despite over £900 million having been spent on road maintenance over the last ten years.

It is, however, big money. The ALARM report suggests that local authorities in Wales needed an extra £90 million annually to provide an ideal surface condition and prevent further deterioration resulting from the backlog being passed on to the following year. Sudden increases in allocated funding give a short-term improvement but these are often followed by cuts and underfunding.

Public expenditure is split into capital (long term) and revenue (one-year) allocated funding. Changing the current Wales road-surface financial backlog of £954 million from revenue funding into five-year capital funding would allow highway authorities to improve planning, give better value for money and deliver a more resilient network.

Economists have suggested a benefit cost ratio would approach a very attractive 2:1 and rise to 9:1. However, it’s not something Finance Minister Mark Drakeford could easily persuade HM Treasury to accept.

Cost consequences – road users.

Meanwhile, road users continue to pay the price through uncomfortable journeys, avoidable breakdowns and subsequent repair bills. Most of us have suffered in some way. The AA estimates that the 700,000 pothole related calls it answered in 2024 the average cost was £250 per vehicle including tyres (£100), Alloy wheels (£300), realignment (£150) and sensor recalibration (£150) – a UK total of  just under £500 million.

End game

The Weetabix television advertisement seems to have caught the public mood – “we should deliver Weetabix where it is most needed … to whoever is in charge of potholes”

However, it’s not Weetabix the pothole fighters need. Rather it requires more skilled staff, more machinery and as this column constantly bleats, more government funding.

There is little point in blaming highway authorities; they do their best with the funds available.