Despite the country being in various stages of lockdown from
April to the end of June in its fight against the coronavirus,
RAC patrols still had to go to the rescue of 1,766 drivers whose
vehicles had fallen foul of potholes.
While overall motor traffic volumes were
down by as much 60% in the second quarter of 2020 according to
government data, pothole-related call-outs during this period
still made up 1.1% of all breakdowns attended by the RAC* – the
same proportion as were attended in the second quarter of 2019,
perhaps indicating that road surface quality has not
significantly improved.
In contrast to the first quarter of the
year when RAC patrols went to the aid of 3,426 drivers who
suffered damaged shock absorbers, broken suspension springs or
distorted wheels (equal to 1.6% of all breakdowns), the drop in
the number of pothole breakdowns between April and June is,
however, significant.
RAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes
said: “On the surface, these statistics appear encouraging
because they make it seem as though the quality of our roads
hasn’t worsened, but when you consider how few vehicles were on
the road, they are a real cause for
concern.
“We would have hoped to have seen a far
bigger drop in the share of pothole-related breakdowns than we
would do normally at this time of year, but instead it was just
the same as usual.”
The RAC’s Pothole Index**, which is
probably the most accurate long-term indicator of the health of
the UK’s roads available, suggests the overall standard of the
roads improved very slightly in Q2 2020 with the Index reducing
from 1.65 to 1.59, down from 2.04 in the same period last year –
the lowest since Q1 2008, the point at which the state of the
UK’s roads began to grow steadily worse. This means drivers are
now 1.5 times more likely to suffer a pothole breakdown than in
2006, when the RAC first started collecting
data.
The worst time for potholes – or ‘peak
pothole’ – occurred in Q1 2010 when drivers were 3.5 times more
likely to break down as a result of pothole-related damage than
they were back in 2006. At this time pothole-related call-outs
accounted for 1.9% of the RAC’s entire fault mix – a percentage
which was topped in Q1 2017 with a figure of 2.7%, also making it
one of the worst times for encountering potholes on the UK’s
roads.
RAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes
said: “Looking at our breakdown data in regard to pothole damage
the long-term trend is clearly down which is good news for
everyone who uses the roads.
“But we were very surprised by how many
of these call-outs we dealt with during lockdown considering the
vast majority of our work in this period was helping motorists
with flat batteries at home as a result of vehicles being used so
little.
“Those who did need our assistance away
from home between April and June must have been very annoyed that
their vehicle had been unlucky enough to have fallen victim to a
pothole, particularly as many local authorities took advantage of
the quieter roads during lockdown to repair poor road
surfaces.
“With council budgets under significant
pressure, it is important that our local roads are not left
behind as the UK’s economic recovery will depend on high quality
infrastructure. This is why we want to see councils given the
same certainty of funding for road maintenance and improvement as
major roads in England and Wales have through the National Roads
Fund which ring-fences money from car tax – vehicle excise duty –
for that purpose.
“This could easily be achieved by putting
aside 2p from the existing 58p a litre duty on the sale of petrol
and diesel. Over five years this would generate nearly 5bn of
additional funds which will help bring our local roads back to a
fit-for-purpose state.”
To report a pothole, or to find out
if you suffer from damage from one and wonder if you can claim
for compensation, visit the
RAC’s pothole online
guide.
The RAC has also published
a guide on looking after cars during the
pandemic.
For an interactive, embeddable version of
this chart visit
the RAC Media Centre
or contact the press
office.
Ends
Notes to
Editors
* The RAC provides ‘complete peace of
mind’ breakdown cover for more than 12m private and business
drivers. The figures quoted are based on its 2m-plus individual
members who buy policies direct from the
RAC.
** The RAC Pothole Index is a 12-month
rolling measure of the share of pothole fault breakdowns compared
to 2006, corrected for seasonal weather effects and improving
longer term vehicle reliability Data has been collected by the
RAC since 2006. Data excludes
punctures.
