State of UK Roads...NAF !!! (UK Roads)

Member Name: .com

Product:	UK Roads
Date:	06/01/01 (286 review reads)
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The state of the roads in the UK is NAF, appalling, disgraceful, the explicitives are endless; (and I'm not talking about my hairstyle!)

Seriously, I have been driving for over 18 years – although not very well according to my partner. I have lived all over the UK but for the last 10 years of so have resided in or around London. My current car is an Audi A6, but in my younger days, I used to motor around in Escorts, my friends still think of me as a big Kid!

Currently the majority of my driving has been confined to London and the South East with the odd foray to Birmingham, the West Country, Scotland, Wales, Manchester, Liverpool and the Lake District. Usually on business excursions or holidays. Although I do a significant amount of driving in foreign countries, such as the U.S.A, France etc. and it is certainly a different experience. Mostly for the better, but the topic here is not about driving in foreign countries it is here in the UK. My opinions on this subject reflect my experiences and may concur with other parts of the country.

Although I now live in South London, I am actually based in central London and am 'forced' to drive to work. Yes that does make me part of the environmental problems that the UK faces but then I have what I feel to be reasons. I live in an area that is ‘isolated’ from a train station – It’s over an hours walk, and I don’t really want to move again – I’ve just settled into my new house! So to get to the train station I either have to get a bus (I will not get started on the state of the UK bus system – I will leave that to a future op) or drive. If I were to drive, then I would have to fork out for parking in a local car park, which works out to be around £5 everyday! This is not cost effective and on top of this I still have to pay for train fares and then walk from the station at the other end to my offices. The only other alternative
I can think of is cycling - but my partner don’t like to cycle and I have to use to many dual carriageways! In any case you loses a lot of cred cycling to work carrying a briefcase and wearing a suit! And don't even get me started on what would happen if I cycled in the rain! However, on the positive side my partner works in Paddington so we share the car to/from work. So to be honest I am not totally environmentally unfriendly.

In my opinion, the Standard of Driving has deteriorated significantly since I've been at an age to be observant about driving (about 10). Whilst I have noted the majority of drivers are fair and courteous observing the unwritten 'code of the road'; an increasing minority do not and seem to take great pleasure in being discourteous. As an example today I waited for over 20 cars to go past before I could turn into a 'B road.' A disgrace, I'm sure you'll agree, you would have thought they could let me go, knowing that they were going to be stopped at the traffic lights anyway. The problem is that these days everyone is always in a rush. So lets define this pathetic minority of drivers who can in general be identified by some or all of the following
- their refusal to give way at junctions,
- their ability to block box junction even though they can't actually clear the junction,
- their tendency to drive at excessive speeds ,
- their insistence to run through red lights,
- their belief that they are the only driver on the road!

It is their abusive conduct and their carelessness that causes accidents. I don't need such hassle when all I am trying to do is drive to work. I guess this is a plea to fellow drivers to relax and drive with a bit more respect/consideration for others. At the end of the day we all need to get where we're going and preferably in one piece so there is no need for an aggressive atmosphere on the road and please stop blocking those
box junctions.

Concerning the tax revenue side, there are a large number of statistics that indicate how much tax is obtained from road related items (e.g. road fund licence, petrol tax, etc…). Assuming there are around 25 million private vehicles in the UK with an average mileage of 7500 miles a year - equivalent to around 900 litres of petrol per year. The amounts obtained from the road fund licence and fuel tax will be around £2.8 billion and £15 billion per year, respectively. These figures don't even include public and heavy goods vehicles, if we put these into the equation the numbers are easily doubled. Thus the exchequer is obtaining over £32 billion per year from road related taxes. Of course, by the Governments own admission most of this revenue is put into the Public purse with only a relatively small percentage (possibly around 25%) being allocated to transportation. A joke really, I've always wondered why we pay taxes because the town council where I live never seem to do anything. There are numerous roads, which could use roundabouts, traffic lights and red and yellow lines.

Considering the tax revenue obtained the condition of the UK's roads can only be/is atrocious. Many road surfaces are full of potholes or are falling apart due to lack of maintenance. The road surfaces have limited lifetimes and need regular replacement. However due to cost cutting or pressure to reduce road spend this maintenance activity has been rescheduled or worse still cancelled. In my opinion, the schedule of road surface renewal should be brought up to date. We need more 'humps' in roads around the town centre to slow down the flow of traffic. Because if the speed limits 30mph you can guarantee that over 50% of drivers will break it. Yet in central London you would struggle to make 5mph on roads such as the Strand and Oxford Street.

Environmental concerns aside, the problem with building new roads is that if the road
is useful then drivers will use it and consequently it will eventually become congested! However careful road building such as the use of bypasses and ring roads is desirable as it results in redirecting traffic away from town centres or villages that can not cope with the through traffic and where such traffic will do serious damage. Furthermore, bypasses could reduce accidents and ensure the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.

We are already paying for using some bridges and river crossings (e.g. Severn Bridge, Humber Estuary Bridge, Dartford River Crossing, etc …) so road charges are not a totally unknown concept. However, these were public funded projects and the revenue is used for their maintenance, in any case charges are the exception rather than the rule.

My concern with charging for using privately funded roads and bridges is that the charges will become excessive. This will almost certainly lead to elitism on the roads whereby only the 'rich' can afford to use the toll roads on a regular basis. No doubt, yet another quango will be set-up to regulate road charges – these guys will have an interesting job.

My opinion toward road building is that the infra structure of this country still needs improving and unless there is a viable alternative to roads we will need more of them in future and they will need to be better in terms of capacity and lifetime. However I am against building roads for the sake of it.

Hey, but what do I care about traffic jams, potholes, traffic lights, box junctions, dual carriageways and poor road building when I can simply take the chopper to work anyway!!!

Any comments on my opinion or indeed on the subject of UK roads will be welcomed. I always find it useful to have feedback, seeing as I’m a fairly new user, cheers!!!

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