does Kent have the worst roads in the country for cycling?

ARob

sorry this isn't that interesting to anyone outside of Kent ! but it does seem to me that we have about the worst roads anyone i've come across.

as soon as you go over the boader to sunny sussex its like cycling on velvet!

anyone else noticed the same? if so i suggest you make a complaint to kent county council which you can do here:

http://www.kent.gov.uk/KCC.eGov.SimpleE ... tails.aspx

or report the worst offending pot holes here:
http://www.kent.gov.uk/eFault/Applicati ... egory.aspx

you can also contact your local councillor which is surprisingly effective.

perhaps people could also post here if you can't be bothered going to the council direct

giant_man

I don't think the South East is very good in general quite honestly, you should see some of the roads here in Essex, really awful!

loobster

Yup, I was just about to say. Little more than dirt tracks, some I went on on Saturday.

benvickery

Interesting you should raise this. I was cycling home to Maidstone on the A25 recently and when I crossed from Surrey into Kent, the road changed instantly and it was like going over a cattle grid. I normally only cycle in Kent, so I suppose I'm used to it.

jswba

Kent is rubbish. I split my time between the Democratic Republic of South Yorkshire and the Garden of England, and the quality of the roads is very different. Yorkshire isn't the best, but at least it doesn't feel like I'm riding a boneshaker!

Pirahna

giant mancp wrote:

I don't think the South East is very good in general quite honestly, you should see some of the roads here in Essex, really awful!

You should cross the border to Herts. Essex roads are sublime in comparisson.

Gussio

The tarmac is always grainier on the other side of the fence.

duckiciao

North Lincs has pretty poor roads in the towns and villages (the second you go into the tiniest village the road becomes a dirt track), but on the A and B and most unclassifeds, the surface is pretty good.

loobster

Pirahna wrote:

giant mancp wrote:

I don't think the South East is very good in general quite honestly, you should see some of the roads here in Essex, really awful!

You should cross the border to Herts. Essex roads are sublime in comparisson.

I will be this weekend probably. Gonna go from Epping up to Cambridge and back, slightly over a century I think but I'm confident I can do it.

I'll cross into Herts to go through Stortford and other such delightful places.

dombo6

No, Surrey takes that accolade. Absolutely the worst, without question.

GeorgeShaw

Glos/South Glos is awful. I just had to go to my LBS because a year of riding (1500 miles) had put a nice big notch in my head hearings.

andyp

Dombo6 wrote:

No, Surrey takes that accolade. Absolutely the worst, without question.

Agreed. Consider that per head of population it is the wealthiest county in the UK and you wonder where the money goes!

mascott

i agree that some of the roads in kent are shi*
some of those very steep roads out of sevenoaks are evil......you seem to just get going and you are stuck in an old cable tv road "repair" hurtling down trying to stay either "in" the repair or avoiding it.

also.......

i commute through the mean streets of london daily and ride the not so mean streets of tunbridge wells/kent and i have to say that kent has such a high number of kn*b drivers it beggars belief.
i'm not saying london is great, but those arrogant bmw/merc drivers of kent seem to find us such an inconvienience that they appear to consider manslaughter a viable alternative to a 10second delay getting to the golf club.

buddha

andyp wrote:

Dombo6 wrote:

No, Surrey takes that accolade. Absolutely the worst, without question.

Agreed. Consider that per head of population it is the wealthiest county in the UK and you wonder where the money goes!

Wasn't it in the news recently that Surrey County Council saved millions (around £25M IIRC) from their budget last year? Now we know how they did it.
Although they have been doing a fair bit of resurfacing / filling in potholes where I usually ride (Westerham/Woldingham area). But in some areas I'm glad I ride a steel frame.

ColinJ

jswba wrote:

Kent is rubbish. I split my time between the Democratic Republic of South Yorkshire and the Garden of England, and the quality of the roads is very different. Yorkshire isn't the best, but at least it doesn't feel like I'm riding a boneshaker!

That may be true in South Yorkshire, but I'm afraid that the road surfaces are pretty awful in much of West Yorkshire :shock: !

Mark Alexander

some of the roads in the SW valleys are horific. there are so may 'repairs' and utility digs that its like riding over small but frequent speed bumps for miles at a time.