- Confused.com, a car insurance price-comparison company in the United Kingdom, has designed a road sign intending to warn drivers of the estimated 2 million potholes that dot the U.K. landscape.
- The company is petitioning motorists to show their support for the pothole sign to encourage the Department of Transportation to adopt it.
- Ted Relf, a plumber from Kent, inspired the sign. He erected a similar handmade design in front of his house in April 2010, but was forced by his local government to remove it.
CARDIFF, Wales — The road to pothole hell is paved with good intentions.
Confused.com, a car insurance price-comparison company in the United Kingdom, has designed a road sign intending to warn drivers of the estimated 2 million potholes that dot the U.K. landscape, a situation to which American drivers can relate.
The triangle sign, which depicts a car wheel swallowed by an uneven surface, is the first official one of its kind and Confused.com is urging the Department for Transport to introduce it to roads across the U.K. To emphasize its popularity, Confused.com is asking motorists to support the new sign by visiting here.
The campaign is in response to the realization that, even with healthy budgets, it would take local councils at least 11 years to repair the U.K.'s damaged roads. A Confused.com survey further suggests that 82 percent of local drivers want a road sign dedicated to potholes because they encounter at least 10 per day.
"Although repairing these roads is obviously the long-term solution, something needs to be done now," Mike Hoban, chief marketing officer at Confused.com, said in a statement. "Currently the U.K.'s road signs include warnings for wild horses, wild animals, cattle and even toads, but potholes aren't considered worthy enough? A pothole road sign is a vital step in preventing accidents and reducing insurance claims whilst road maintenance continues."
Ted Relf, a plumber from Kent, inspired the sign. The pothole crusader put up a similar handmade design in front of his house in April 2010, but was forced by his local government to remove it because it was "a distraction."
"We all moan about potholes and now we have the chance to do something about them," Relf said in a statement. "I created my own pothole sign last year because I was concerned for the safety of drivers on my road. I fully support the introduction of an official pothole road sign and urge the nation to sign the petition at Confused.com."
Inside Line says: If they have time to erect the sign, surely they have time to fill the pothole.
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mklrivowner says:
07:12 AM, 07/05/2011
Turn it into a bilboard campaign and help raise money for resurfacing roads. Once the potholes are gone, you would need to take the signs down anyway.
mardani977 says:
08:55 PM, 07/04/2011
Considering the cost and man hours it would take to buy the signs and put the signs up, it would be a waste of money, something no government should be doing considering we are still in a worldwide global economic crisis.
In the US, some cities have special trucks that via remote control either fills in pot holes for a permanent fix with asphalt, or patches a pot whole with a mix of finely crushed stone and tar that last surprisingly long. I have seen one of these trucks while sitting on a friends balcony fix a pot hole that was probably 2 feet across in about 6 minutes. The trucks may not be in use all the time in some areas so municipalities could probably combine resources to buy them, and the man hours saved from having to dispatch people to put up and remove signs everytime a pothole develops or gets fixed is much more practical.
kdizzle says:
04:19 PM, 07/04/2011
Fixing a pothole takes a lot of money, time, and blocked traffic. The last line of the article is incorrect, they are not equivalent. Hence the sign.
noobnox says:
06:36 AM, 07/04/2011
The last line of this article says all that really needs to be said about this.