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Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

theguardian.com

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Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#71

Post by flir »

youngtaff wrote: post #62
chgs wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pot jokes are typically on local roads. These are funded from councils. Council income is from a property tax, “council tax” and “business rates”. Councils have many spending commitments, my local council about 80% of income goes on “Adult Social Care”, which is basically paying for carers to go to wealthy old people and look after them because while they own a million pound house it would be unfair to expect them to…

Council income is mostly grants from central government

"In 2019/20 (the last year before emergency Covid funding), local authorities in England received 22% of their funding from government grants, 52% from council tax, and 27% from retained business rates." - https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/local-go...

(I can't accept retained business rates being part of central government funding, but you may see it differently).

Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#72

Post by chgs »

youngtaff wrote: post #62
chgs wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pot jokes are typically on local roads. These are funded from councils. Council income is from a property tax, “council tax” and “business rates”. Councils have many spending commitments, my local council about 80% of income goes on “Adult Social Care”, which is basically paying for carers to go to wealthy old people and look after them because while they own a million pound house it would be unfair to expect them to…

Council income is mostly grants from central government

It really isn’t, unless you include the pass through funding for education

Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#73

Post by chgs »

OJFord wrote: post #45
chgs wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pot jokes are typically on local roads. These are funded from councils. Council income is from a property tax, “council tax” and “business rates”. Councils have many spending commitments, my local council about 80% of income goes on “Adult Social Care”, which is basically paying for carers to go to wealthy old people and look after them because while they own a million pound house it would be unfair to expect them to…

> “Adult Social Care”, which is basically paying for carers to go to wealthy old people and look after them because while they own a million pound house it would be unfair to expect them to pay for their own care. That's BS. Adult social care is comically underfunded, needs-assessed, and not to a standard or timeliness that you would choose if you could afford private.

Adult social care is mainly to old people, who typically own their own homes. There was a suggestion in 2017 that people with a lot of wealth could fund their own care even if they aren’t moved to a care home (which is currently the case). Labour and the daily mail joined forces to block this.

Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#74

Post by OptionOfT »

fhd2 wrote: post #32
haunter wrote: post #19

I live in Hungary and the roads here are incredibly bad with millions of potholes. Hot summers and cold winters doesn’t help either. But what I noticed that if the asphalt has higer mixture of stones (usually they use basalt here) then there are virtually almost no potholes. It’s more loud as the surface is more rough but by my layman experience it’s much more durable. Pure asphalt roads with very little stone conten…

I did a road trip through Europe a few years back, and when we passed from Romania (coming from Cluj) to Hungary, the road immediately got _comically_ bad. As we got closer to Budapest things seemed to improve, but wow, I vividly remember this. I'd be curious to learn whether it's a lack of maintenance (Hungary generally seemed well maintained except for the roads though) or something else.

I lived in Belgium, close to the Dutch border. When you take the E314 East, it is insane how the quality of the road improves once you cross the Meuse/Maas into the Netherlands.

The asphalt becomes so smooth and quiet. No potholes.

Until it rains. Then the rain seems to stay on top of it. Meaning a lot more fine water mist being produced by cars driving over it.

Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#75

Post by PeterStuer »

jmb99 wrote: post #47
PeterStuer wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But not the right kind of grit rough. The 'stoney' rough asphalts can be extremely slippery when wet, and even dry they then to extend breaking distance. My guess is they also cause more rolling tire wear and slightly more fuel consuption.

I’m not sure how you could have worse grip when braking (caused by lower friction) while simultaneously increase tire wear (caused by higher friction), unless I’m misunderstanding something.

Tire wear is not just friction. The uneven coarse grit can pound, cut, chip and twist the tire surface all while having less grip/friction.

Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#76

Post by fhd2 »

hulitu wrote: post #70
haunter wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lack of maintenance and it’s a generally corrupt country. Stealing is not a crime (especially from public funds) but an act of bravery. There are no consequences. My theory that construction companies here work as a cartel. For them making good roads is not a business > less projects later. So keeping up the status quo with low quality is a better business, there is always something to fix and repair and also more op…

> Lack of maintenance and it’s a generally corrupt country. Stealing is not a crime (especially from public funds) but an act of bravery. There are no consequences. Welcome to EU. Is there any EU country where this is not a fact ?

I'm in Germany, and while I'm sure we have some corruption (I believe every country has at least a little bit), I'm not aware of it as a systemic problem.

With our previous (and how it's looking, next) government there was a scandal around masks in Covid times, and a few others I think.

But nothing to the point of causing major disrepair of infrastructure. Our rail infrastructure is famously in need of maintenance, but from all I know that's more a matter of stupidity than malice (Hanlon's Razor and all that).

While some might just denounce it as bureaucracy, we do have a lot of regulation, oversight and checks and balances. Which causes it's own issues (like having to pick the cheapest suppliers from an extended process).

But I believe there are some EU countries where corruption in itself is a problem.

Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#77

Post by xenonite »

fhd2 wrote: post #76
hulitu wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lack of maintenance and it’s a generally corrupt country. Stealing is not a crime (especially from public funds) but an act of bravery. There are no consequences. Welcome to EU. Is there any EU country where this is not a fact ?

I'm in Germany, and while I'm sure we have some corruption (I believe every country has at least a little bit), I'm not aware of it as a systemic problem. With our previous (and how it's looking, next) government there was a scandal around masks in Covid times, and a few others I think. But nothing to the point of causing major disrepair of infrastructure. Our rail infrastructure is famously in need of maintenance, b…

well as you name the rail infrastructure: it was sold out and left to despair since the 1970s. This was clearly lobbying from the automotive industry. Similarly in the USA, tramlines where teared down in many cities.

Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#78

Post by Reason077 »

walthamstow wrote: post #56
Reason077 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ”People would notice very quickly if their bins weren't being collected.” This was a constant problem at my London council. They collected our rubbish bin reliably, but never our council-supplied recycling bin. Eventually we found out that the rules had changed and recycling had to be put in specially marked clear plastic bags, but the bags were almost impossible to get. You literally had to go to the local library…

Tower Hamlets is absolutely the worst borough in London. It's dirty and it stinks - and that's just the election results! They make bankrupt Croydon look respectable.

Location-wise, I really enjoyed living there. Close to everything with great cycle routes. Easy access to fast tube/Elizabeth line connections. Some nice parks, and great walking/running routes along the canals/docks/river. Quick walk (or illegal cycle) through the tunnel to Greenwich.

But you're right, politically it's a disaster! During one of the general elections a few years back there was a local referendum held on the same night about how the mayoral governance was going to work in the borough. Rahman (who's now the mayor) actually had his thugs posted at the doors accosting voters as they arrived and urging them to vote for his preferred option. Police were there keeping an eye on them but didn't seem to be intervening. Guess this sort of electoral interference is okay in Tower Hamlets!

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