Recent data analysis by the RAC appears to show something that riders in the United Kingdom already knew: the roads of this crowded archipelago are getting worse.
The RAC (sort of like the AAA, for those of you playing along outside the UK) says that claims made to councils seeking compensation for damage caused by potholes jumped 90 percent between 2021 and 2024.
That works out to some 53,015 claims made across 177 local authorities in 2024, as compared to 27,731 claims back in 2021. They’re numbers that seem to suggest councils are failing in their basic responsibilities to residents. Or, that they simply don’t have enough money.
The Local Government Association (LAG) told the BBC last week that “ever-increasing pressure’ on budgets [is] affecting councils’ abilities to fix roads.” And having to pay out thousands in compensation claims probably doesn’t help the situation. According to the BBC, the average payout is around £390.
Frustratingly, that’s a pretty stingy amount; the RAC estimates that the average repair for pothole damage comes in around £590. Even more frustratingly, the RAC found that only 26 percent of claims in 2024 actually led to a payout.
Digressing a bit here, if you want to be helpful to yourself and your community, it’s a good idea to go through the trouble of reporting potholes as soon as you see them. It’s my understanding that many compensation claims are rejected because the pothole hadn’t previously been reported. So, the council is able to say that it knew nothing about said road defect.
Sure, you can find Facebook community group pages complaining about it for years, but as far as the council is concerned, if a pothole hasn’t been officially reported it could have popped up just minutes before the incident occurred.
Meanwhile, the LAG reported last spring that it estimates that the “ever-growing backlog of local road repairs… now stands at nearly £17 billion and could take more than a decade to fix.”
For its part the UK Department for Transport (DfT) told the BBC that it expects to spend £7.3 billion over the next four years “on improving road surfaces.”
“This will turn the tide on years of underinvestment in our road network, allowing local authorities to move away from expensive, short-term repairs and invest in proactive maintenance and prevent potholes from forming in the first place,” a DfT representative told the BBC.
However, I can’t help wondering if there’s fuzzy math involved in the DfT’s figure – which is still markedly less than what the LAG says is needed. Perhaps the DfT is looping in existing, non-pothole-related projects. You know, like the neverending and seemingly impactless work it’s been doing on the M27 for the past five years.
The only real plus side of all this for motorcyclists is that it vindicates all the adventure bikes we’ve been buying. It’s easily the most popular segment in the United Kingdom, despite the fact that the country has very, very few locations where riding off road is both legal and free.
Turns out we don’t need dedicated off-road spaces; we’re able to test the reliability of our suspensions just by going to get coffee.
I’ve just realized that I used a lot of acronyms in this article. Apologies.
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