Advice pse on damage due to road surfsce

I was out today on a regular route that I use( only a couple of miles from
home) when I hit a "pothole" in the road and ruined the rim of the rear
wheel of my nearly new velo. I had to walk it home!

Now, this is a road which I cycle on several times each week since it is so
close to home, but I haven't hit this "hole" previously. Indeed I wouldn't
have hit it today excepting I was being passed by 2 or 3 cars at the time
and didn't have the room to manoeuvre round it -- and I was travelling at
about 25 mph on the beginning of a down hill bit.which probably explains why
it happened.

So, although I am fully insured, should I approach the local authority
responsible and ask about the dreaded "compensation"?

I have never made such an approach in my life but one hears so much these
days about people claiming over trips on a pavement and so on.

I am also very much aware about a deterioration in road surfaces locally (
there has been a local authority reduction in expenditure in road
maintenance for a few years now and it shows -- it seems to be a policy of
patch and fill).

So should I approach them and ask them to pay up -- or is it just too much
hassle!

Views please!

Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
www.tapan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

On Sun, Pinky wrote:

So, although I am fully insured, should I approach the local authority
responsible and ask about the dreaded "compensation"?

I have never made such an approach in my life but one hears so much these
days about people claiming over trips on a pavement and so on.

I did similar on my commute once. I didn't 'ask' them, so much as
phone them up and tell them I would be claiming. I subsequently
supplied a photograph of the pothole, a copy of the receipt for new
rim, and a letter 'requesting' (in a polite-but-no-debate-about-it
sort of tone) payment.

This had two beneficial effects:

1: Pothole was filled within 8 hrs (I hit it cycling home,
photographed it next am cycling to work, telephoned council about
10am, it was filled in by the time I cycled home).

2: A cheque for the cost of the rim appeared.

Views please!

Tbh, effect 1 was the most beneficial effect. If it takes threats
about money to trigger immediate-filling-in I'm all for making threats
about money.

regards, Ian SMith
--
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I am also very much aware about a deterioration in road surfaces locally (
there has been a local authority reduction in expenditure in road
maintenance for a few years now and it shows -- it seems to be a policy
of
patch and fill).

So should I approach them and ask them to pay up -- or is it just too much
hassle!

Views please!

If you have a camera, you should take a photograph of the pot hole as
evidence to be submitted with your claim. From previous postings, possibly
here, you could be in for a protracted battle to part the council from its
money.

A claim through the small claims court might work and might be worth
investigating - there is a minimum value for the claim and I'm not sure what
it is. It's cheaper for the council to settle out of court than to be
represented to defend the against the claim.

Good luck.

In article , Pinky
wrote:
So, although I am fully insured, should I approach the local
authority responsible and ask about the dreaded "compensation"?

I have never made such an approach in my life but one hears so much
these days about people claiming over trips on a pavement and so on.

If you approach them in a reasonable manner and don't demand too much
you will normally be OK - works with our LA - where I claim for a few
new wheels each year due to potholes.

--
A T (Sandy) Morton
on the Bicycle Island
In the Global Village
http://www.millport.net

Pinky wrote:

I am also very much aware about a deterioration in road surfaces locally (
there has been a local authority reduction in expenditure in road
maintenance for a few years now and it shows -- it seems to be a policy of
patch and fill).

So should I approach them and ask them to pay up -- or is it just too much
hassle!


My wife ruined a car tyre on a pothole; the council had a barrier
around it by the next day and paid the cost of the replacement
tyre with very little argument. Photos were taken but weren't needed.

-adrian

"Pinky" wrote in message
...
I was out today on a regular route that I use( only a couple of miles from


Tks all!
I shall get on the phone tomorrow! ( after taking a photo)

--
Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
www.tapan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

in message , Pinky
') wrote:

I was out today on a regular route that I use( only a couple of miles
from
home) when I hit a "pothole" in the road and ruined the rim of the
rear wheel of my nearly new velo. I had to walk it home!

I'm going to be unsympathetic, I'm afraid.

In Britain we've come to expect unrealistic standards of road surface
quality. The roads budget takes a huge share of local authority finance
which would be better spent on social services and education. If you
pumped your tyres up hard enough and rode more carefully (and possibly
used more appropriate tyres, I can't say) it wouldn't happen.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

The trouble with Simon is that he only opens his mouth to change feet.
;; of me, by a 'friend'

Simon Brooke wrote:
in message , Pinky
') wrote:

I was out today on a regular route that I use( only a couple of miles
from
home) when I hit a "pothole" in the road and ruined the rim of the
rear wheel of my nearly new velo. I had to walk it home!

I'm going to be unsympathetic, I'm afraid.

In Britain we've come to expect unrealistic standards of road surface
quality. The roads budget takes a huge share of local authority
finance which would be better spent on social services and education.
If you pumped your tyres up hard enough and rode more carefully (and
possibly used more appropriate tyres, I can't say) it wouldn't happen.

Up to a point. As he said, he would have swerved, but there was overtaking
traffic, which suggests it's on roads that are heavily trafficked and where
it's thus reasonable to expect them to be well surfaced.

Having suffered with a pothole at a pinchpoint on a route that I used daily
(along with many many cars and maybe one or two other cyclists), I'm less
sympathetic to believing that it's an imposition on the council to make
roads work. They tend to work where the houses are expensive, I've found.

--
Ambrose

"Simon Brooke" wrote in message
...
snipsnip

I'm going to be unsympathetic, I'm afraid.

In Britain we've come to expect unrealistic standards of road surface
quality. The roads budget takes a huge share of local authority finance
which would be better spent on social services and education. If you
pumped your tyres up hard enough and rode more carefully (and possibly
used more appropriate tyres, I can't say) it wouldn't happen.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

The trouble with Simon is that he only opens his mouth to change
feet.
;; of me, by a 'friend'


Purely in response to your, not unwelcome, comments.
My tyres were inflated to recommended pressures and were checked the
previous day.. They are also virtually brand new and as supplied. And I ride
carefully at nearly all times ( don't we all!), having cycled some 10,000
miles in the last 2 years. There are, of course, occasions which external
forces come into play as they did at this time.

In the very brief time that I had to change direction having seen the
"hazard" I was already aware of the cars that were in the process of
overtaking me. I was well positioned in the carriageway being at about 1/3
of the width.

I have probably cycled on this section of road several hundred times ( or
more) -- perhaps familiarity breeds contempt!

The reason I posed the enquiry was that I have always maintained and paid
for all damage to my bike myself as a matter of course. I have also had my
bikes insured ( but have never claimed for "minor" damage). But both as a
cyclist ( most of the time) and a motorist ( for about 1/3 of the bike
mileage) I have been very aware of a quite considerable deterioration in the
quality of road surfaces in recent years . There has been a very apparent
"fill in holes policy" for a number of years and the post winter period,
after hard frosts, always open up weaknesses created by that policy. Now, if
I am aware of bad road surfaces when driving my car I am even more aware of
them when riding my bike!

So although I know where most of the bad patches are
........but...............I don't see every metre of any road on which I
cycle. And if I were a stranger ..............!

I take a very different view to your main comment when I know that
expenditure on road maintenance has been put on a "back burner" for several
years.
(By the way on this same section of road , about 400 metres earlier there
had been a deeply sunken manhole cover in the main carriageway which I had
asked to be rectified about for over a year before it was finally repaired.)

I am aware the no authority can be expected to know of every hole and bit
of damage on any section of road. But that does not absolve them from
responsibility. In this event I controlled my bike , in traffic, when the
road surface caused me to suffer damage to my bike,immediately altering its
stability which could have put me in danger from the passing cars.
Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
www.tapan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

Simon Brooke wrote:

I'm going to be unsympathetic, I'm afraid.

In Britain we've come to expect unrealistic standards of road surface
quality. The roads budget takes a huge share of local authority
finance which would be better spent on social services and education.
If you pumped your tyres up hard enough and rode more carefully (and
possibly used more appropriate tyres, I can't say) it wouldn't happen.

Some holes and bumps will throw the rider off the bike, let alone damage a
wheel. The worst in London are bad enough to make me feel sick just to
look at! I should claim compensation for physcological damage :-)
Seriously, it is fair that councils compensate victims when they don't
inspect and fix the roads properly. It's at least as important as
education, IMO.

High air pressure will prevent a tyre compressing all the way to the rim,
whatever you hit, but that's not the only bad thing that can happen to
rims, wheels, bike and rider, and not everyone wants their tyres that hard
anyway.

Of course you should ride carefully but still I think the roads should be
in a decent state in case you're human and fail to spot one of every five
hundred potholes you come across, and unfortunate enough for one of those
one day to be bad enough to damage your bike/self. They are not all easy
to see, and it is easy to be distracted (by others doing wrong, for
example).

After all, road signs, street furniture and junctions have to be easy to
see. It wouldn't be acceptable for the odd random one to be practically
invisible whilst driving at a reasonable speed. Cycling at 5 mph and
continuously staring at every inch of the surface is the only way to
guarantee you'd *never* run into a pothole. As that's not reasonable,
let's have the roads maintained properly, please. The claims for
compensation should encourage the authorities to get on with it.

~PB