I’m just back in France after a week visiting family in the UK. We had a hire car (a Nissan Quashai: very quiet and smooth, quite nippy, but impossible to see any of the 4 corners – cameras and parking aids obligatory!) and drove from Gatwick to the Poole-ish area via the M25/M3/M27 etc., knocked up a couple of hundred miles driving around parts of Dorset, Wiltshire and Somerset, and finally returned to Gatwick via Portsmouth and Guildford.

There’s little to say about the motorway part of the trip (apart from the seemingly-interminable roadworks after joining the M3 from the M25). I was impressed by the generally good manners of drivers on the motorway and I witnessed no excessive speeding or lane-hogging.
However, I could not believe the state of some of the secondary roads Some were absolutely appalling with potholes, crumbling surfaces and so on. How do you manage to live with that? I’d read about potholes causing damage to cars – causing accidents even – but I was not prepared for how bad some roads were.
And then there’s the information overload … There are so many road signs that they must surely constitute a road hazard in themselves if drivers were to try even just to glance at them (what’s the point of putting them up if they’re not meant to be looked at?). Speed limit signs, radar check area signs, slow signs, school signs, bend signs, parking signs … and painted on the road as well as on signposts. Honestly I had difficulty believing just how many there were!
And then driving out of one town/village into the next … 30 mph, 40 mph, 20 mph limits, differing limits as you drive through a town … I found it almost impossible to know what speed I was supposed to keep to. Happily the Quashai on-board systems showed the prevailing speed limit, otherwise I know I would have picked up a ticket or two. It’s a nightmare!

I take my hat off to those of you who drive in the UK.  It's "bébéchoon", ackcherly, with accents. 'Steve' to my chums.
20 years ownership of Solihull products, ALL GONE NOW, sniff!
Current motor: Suzuki S-Cross 4WD auto, 1.4 petrol. Oh so reliable! 7 years now and no problems. Oh, all right then, a leaking shocker replaced under guarantee.
Previous:
TD6 HSE L322 Auto FF
2.5 TDi 4-door Classic
Disco II
And my 1st Rangie: in 1995, a 2-door VM 2.5 diesel Classic
Not to mention the Lada Niva before those. (I said not to mention it!)

You should have come up to Jockland, even worse! Are the roads a lot better in France?

It's because we are in the EU, we send all our money over there to fix everyone elses roads so have nothing left for our own...

OK Rant over........... Pete
__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

Rosco: I had never really thought about it before, but the mere fact that it was so striking on this visit must mean something. I have no axe to grind; I just pity you having to put up with all that!

And Pete: thanks! Keep on paying!  It's "bébéchoon", ackcherly, with accents. 'Steve' to my chums.
20 years ownership of Solihull products, ALL GONE NOW, sniff!
Current motor: Suzuki S-Cross 4WD auto, 1.4 petrol. Oh so reliable! 7 years now and no problems. Oh, all right then, a leaking shocker replaced under guarantee.
Previous:
TD6 HSE L322 Auto FF
2.5 TDi 4-door Classic
Disco II
And my 1st Rangie: in 1995, a 2-door VM 2.5 diesel Classic
Not to mention the Lada Niva before those. (I said not to mention it!)

Our roads are bad because successive governments have been robbing Peter to pay Paul for decades and put off repair and re-surfacing in the process because there are far more (politically motivated) important demands on the public purse.........what with infrastructure being so unimportant and all.

End of rant.

Last edited by Giantlandyman on 7th May 2016 10:52am. Edited 2 times in total

Should have stopped in for “drinkies” Steve...

Somerset is just down the road sir

I certainly thought about it, Craig. But we just couldn’t fit it all in, dammit Next time …  It's "bébéchoon", ackcherly, with accents. 'Steve' to my chums.
20 years ownership of Solihull products, ALL GONE NOW, sniff!
Current motor: Suzuki S-Cross 4WD auto, 1.4 petrol. Oh so reliable! 7 years now and no problems. Oh, all right then, a leaking shocker replaced under guarantee.
Previous:
TD6 HSE L322 Auto FF
2.5 TDi 4-door Classic
Disco II
And my 1st Rangie: in 1995, a 2-door VM 2.5 diesel Classic
Not to mention the Lada Niva before those. (I said not to mention it!)

Interesting. I went to the UK in 2014 and drove around Cornwall and Devon and up to Solihull for a factory visit and LR Experience day. The motorway was excellent except for confusing roadworks.

I thought the UK roads were pretty good although bloody narrow and with nowhere to park when I wanted to take a pic. I was surprised by the 60 mph speed limits in places where, in Oz, the limit would be 50-60km/h.

I hired a Focus petrol and really liked it as a driver's car (even though I kept forgetting to go up into 6th gear).

As a motorcyclist, I'd love to ride those roads down Cornwall way! They are a lot smoother than some of ours. Ron B. VK2OTC
2003 L322 V8 Auto
2007 Yamaha XJR1300
Previous: 1983, 1986 RRC; 1995, 1996 P38A; 1995 Disco1; 1984 V8 County 110; Series IIA

bebechoon wrote:

And then driving out of one town/village into the next … 30 mph, 40 mph, 20 mph limits, differing limits as you drive through a town … I found it almost impossible to know what speed I was supposed to keep to. Happily the Quashai on-board systems showed the prevailing speed limit, otherwise I know I would have picked up a ticket or two. It’s a nightmare!

bebechoon wrote:

I certainly thought about it, Craig. But we just couldn’t fit it all in, dammit Next time …

Next time Steve...

Emperor Mong wrote:

bebechoon wrote:

And then driving out of one town/village into the next … 30 mph, 40 mph, 20 mph limits, differing limits as you drive through a town … I found it almost impossible to know what speed I was supposed to keep to. Happily the Quashai on-board systems showed the prevailing speed limit, otherwise I know I would have picked up a ticket or two. It’s a nightmare!

Handy rule:
Single carriageway, no street lights - 60mph
Single carriageway, with street lighting: 30mph
Dual carriageway: 70mph
Motorways: 70mph (they are dual carriageways but some people struggle with that concept)

If the limit is anything else, there must be repeater warning signs every 100m or so.

That's rather handy to know.

I just remember the driving choice seemed to be: 1) drive on motorway in giant queue @ 15 mph, or 2) drive on some very skinny B road at 20 mph. The B was usually a lot prettier, and didn't seem to take any more time. Also, we were always lost and looking for signs, so I doubt I ever reach the speed limit anywhere.

It does depend quite a bit on where you are. If you're a biker go to Wales, roads around there are fantastically smooth in comparison, there's a noticeable difference when you cross the Severn Bridge. Mind you we have less roads and people to worry about!

Surrey on the other hand, there used to be potholes near my house that I'd avoid in the 110 because they were 6" deep and just about big enough for the 265/75R16 tyres to fall down them. That particular pothole every nearly wrote off a mate car, luckily only smashed the tyre and alloy to pieces.

I think part of the problem also is they don't want to close roads for too long because we complain so end up doing mediocre repair jobs. I know the councils around my parents basically take the opposite approach and simply close the road, take a couple of weeks resurfacing it et voila people happy after all.

Maybe the amount of tractors travelling over them has something to do with making patches a waste of time. I know we tried tarmac twice on th e entrance to the farm and (actually because of the post man) found it to be useless. Ended up putting 6" of concrete down, 20 years later its still fine with no cracks anywhere. And we only get tractors or artics going over it maybe an average of once a fortnight compared to multiple times a day for our neighbours. Ed

bebechoon wrote:

Happily the Quashai on-board systems showed the prevailing speed limit, otherwise I know I would have picked up a ticket or two. It’s a nightmare!

Here's one reason why are roads are so poor... lack of control and co ordination between the Utility Companies and the Highways department.

Six weeks a go, a local road was closed for a week so that a full resurface could be undertaken. New base, new topcoat.. lovely job. Six weeks later and I am on it watching some Utility company dig it up. By tomorrow, they'll have thrown some tarmac on top and so starts the process of potholes and unevenness...

Near us (Hertfordshire) they resurfaced a roundabout near an industrial area that had become rutted due to the lorries. A week later there were two potholes in it that have been patched with a different material, and it's not even level. And Herts is quite good.