Roads remain drivers’ key concern

Poor road quality remains the greatest motoring concern for UK drivers in 2020.

This is according to research carried out for the RAC’s annual Report on Motoring.

It surveyed more than 3,000 drivers, with 38% – representing the equivalent of 15.2m people – listed the condition and maintenance of local roads as a concern, up from 33% in 2019. That puts it ahead of other issues such as drivers using handheld phones (32%), the poor standard of other motorists’ driving (27%) and the aggressive behaviour of other drivers (26%).

More than half of those surveyed (52%) said local roads have in the last year, up from 49% who said this in 2019, with only six per cent saying they had improved, compared to 11% in 2019.

Those based in rural areas are more likely to say local roads have worsened (59%), as are older drivers, with 62% of those aged 45 and over saying conditions have deteriorated.

For the overwhelming majority who say conditions have deteriorated, problems with road surfaces, such as potholes, remains the number-one gripe for 97% of drivers. But this year there has also been a sharp increase in complaints related to other factors such as the visibility of signage (cited by 46% of drivers in 2020, compared with just 17% a year ago), the amount of roadside litter (35%, up from 23%) and a lack of grass and/or foliage maintenance (34% up from 22%).

RAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes said: “These findings are a big concern given that last year’s relatively mild winter should not, in normal circumstances, have led to a further decline in road surface quality. Usually, RAC patrols see the fewest number of pothole-related breakdowns in the third quarter which coincides with the summer, with volumes having dropped steadily from the high point recorded in the first three months of the year.

“This normally correlates with councils carrying out work to repair potholes in early spring that have appeared over the winter.

“But, faced with the early stages of the pandemic, local authorities might not have been able to keep up their planned maintenance programmes, possibly due to staffing issues, and local roads suffered as a consequence.

“This also calls into question just how much progress has actually been made in fixing the 11 million ‘nuisance’ potholes cited by transport secretary Grant Shapps in May.

“While in last month’s Spending Review the Chancellor committed £1.1bn to local roads maintenance in 2021-22, including £500m to fix potholes and resurface roads, we continue to call for a long-term funding strategy for local roads under local authority control to improve and guarantee their condition into the future.

“The emphasis shouldn’t just be on filling potholes but carrying out proper maintenance that prevents them from occurring in the first place.”