UK vs European roads: Which are of better quality?
Analysis from earlier in the summer found drivers forked out nearly £500m last year due to potholes in the UK, with the average repair charge worth around £250.
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00:00Drivers do seem to think that the roads in Europe are paved with gold compared to ours.
00:06I think it is the proverbial pothole that probably does that.
00:11Every time we survey drivers here, they are forever fed up with potholes.
00:15So I think when they go to Europe and they see that the road surfaces are smoother and
00:19free from potholes, they just are delighted.
00:23But of course, they're on holiday and they are seeing through kind of holiday goggles,
00:28if you like.
00:29So I think though, looking around, certainly looking at our breakdown figures, we deal
00:35with around 25,000 pothole-related breakdowns every year.
00:39And we know from our very latest research that a quarter of drivers we've spoken to
00:45say their cars have been damaged by a pothole.
00:47So it's no wonder that you go aboard and you see a marked difference in the quality of roads.
00:53How do you think that the UK government and local authorities could address the issue
00:56of potholes to improve road conditions here?
00:59What we're doing at the moment isn't working.
01:01Our roads are broken, they're crumbling, and we're in this horrible cycle of seeing a pothole
01:06and filling it in and hoping for the best.
01:08And unfortunately, we've seen data from the government to show that 60% of councils in
01:13England haven't carried out any preventative road maintenance.
01:17And this is the type of maintenance that's needed to make sure that our roads don't get
01:22any worse.
01:23Also, they clearly need to resurface the roads that are in the very worst condition.
01:27But drivers also abroad have seen issues with what we call national roads, motorways and
01:34high-speed dual-carriageways.
01:35And they think they're better than our motorways and high-speed dual-carriageways, which is
01:39a concern because National Highway is well-funded and only has a relatively small proportion
01:46of roads to look after.
01:49They're approaching 200,000 miles of roads, and the major motorways are about 1% of that
01:55because you don't want to be hitting a pothole when you're driving at 70 miles an hour.