One in four people have damaged their car on either a speedhump or pothole, rising to almost one in three (30%) in urban areas.
The Opinium research of over 2000 UK drivers, on behalf of InsuretheGap.com, found that over a quarter (26%), who have damaged their car on a speedhump or pothole, paid between £51 and £100 to fix it; a third (35%) paid between £101 and £250; and 8% said it cost more than £250.
Two fifths (39%) of affected drivers complained to the council about the potholes or speedhumps and more than half of them (55%) said their compliant was ignored, but 39% said action was taken as a result. One in ten (10%) went so far as to send their bill to the council.
A fifth (21%) said they had considered complaining “but didn’t see the point as nothing would change”, and 12% complained to the Highways Agency (now called Highways England / Transport Scotland, Traffic Wales or the Northern Ireland Department for Infrastructure). Instead of complaining, one in six (17%) now take a longer route to avoid potholes.
In 2017 – 2019, more than 905,000 potholes were reported on UK roads.