Britain's pothole problem is five times worse than previously thought with 11.5 million craters on our roads, new AI app reveals
- Stan the App uses driver's video footage and AI technology to detect craters
- Britain's pothole backlog cost an estimated £14 billion in 2023
Britain's pothole problem is five times worse than previously believed, according to fresh new data which has revealed there are a staggering 11.5 million craters on roads.
Data collected by a new mobile app - Stan the App - which uses AI to spot and categorise potholes scattered through British roads implies the issue is far greater than initially thought.
Long-time anti-pothole campaigner, Mark Morrell, also known as Mr Pothole, hopes the statistics push politicians to take action regarding the 'awful condition of our roads'.
Stan the App analyses driver's video footage with AI technology to detect craters in the road.
This comes after Britain's pothole backlog was estimated to cost a record £16.3 million, with the estimated repair bill increasing by £1.22 billion for local authorities to reach their own target road conditions.
Birtain's pothole is five times worse than originally thought, according to new data from Stan the App
The AI app, which uses footage to detect craters in the road estimates there are 11.5 million potholes across the UK (pictured: Stan The App)
The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) said in March it would take 11 years for local authorities to fix every crumbling road in England and Wales, up from nine years in 2022.
The AIA's Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) report also found there were 8,000 fewer miles of road classified as 'good' compared with last year - a fall of 4 per cent.
The RAC had previously estimated there were around a million potholes around the UK at any given time, whilst an eye-watering 2.2 million were fixed in 2023.
However footage captured by the 7,000 who use Stan The App, suggests there are 1.5 million potholes in only 13 per cent of UK roads it had tracked so far.
Mr Morrell hopes the new data will urge politicians to take action against Britain's pothole plague.
'Finally, AI via Stan the App reflects the true awful condition of our roads,' he told The Telegraph.
'This app gives power to the public to survey the roads they use. I am not surprised by the 11.5 million potholes and defects on existing carriageways.
The AA says its patrols in 2023 went out to 16% more pothole-related breakdowns than the yeaer previous
Britain's pothole backlog was estimated to cost a record £14 billion last year, with the repair bill believed to rise by an eye-watering £1.5 billion annually
'I have been warning about this situation over my 11 years of campaigning.'
'Until the Government and the authorities face up to the massive challenge of resurfacing our roads, it will end up costing more and more.'
The transport campaigner believes that if the issue is not tackled now, then over half the country's roads will be 'structurally unsound' in 15 years time.
In the run-up to the general election, the Conservative have promised to invest £8 billion from cancelled HS2 funding into local councils to fix roads.
Labour on the other hand have pledged to fund councils so they can repair a million potholes annually.
The AI app - Stan the App - utilises machine learning technology to pick out potholes from video - captured by motorist - of roads around the country.
According to the spokesman for Metricell - the company behind Stan the App - confirmed the technology had already documented 45,000 kilometres of roads.
Avid anti-pothole campaigner, Mark Morrell, also known as Mr Pothole, hopes the new statistics will push politicians to take action regarding the 'awful condition of our roads'
'We've mapped out 12 per cent of the entire UK,' Mr Mockford said.
Not only does the software detect craters in the ground, it also can decipher their size, including their depth and width.
The Department for Transport do not collect data on the number of potholes in England.
Cllr Claire Holland, transport spokesperson for the Local Government Association, said:
'Councils already invite road users to report highways defects and any new ways that support this and make this easier is helpful.
'Whilst this information will help councils in their planning of road repairs, limited resources and a £16.3 billion backlog of repairs mean councils will need to continue to prioritise according to local circumstances, and want to focus on preventive measures where they can.
'Longer-term, whoever forms the next government should award council Highways Departments with five yearly funding allocations to give more certainty, bringing councils on a par with National Highways so they can develop resurfacing programmes and other highways improvements, tackling the scourge of potholes.'
RAC senior policy officer Rod Dennis said: 'Drivers who are sick and tired of negotiating roads peppered with potholes know only too well how bad the problem across the country is – but up until now, there's been little hard data to back that up.
'That's all changing with Metricell's excellent Stan app as for the first time we can see which roads are worst, as well as the local authorities that are doing a better job looking after them.
'What we need now is for the incoming government to address the problem head on.
'As well as more cash for councils, the answer to Britain's pothole woes is to take preventative steps to extend the life of the roads under their control by surface dressing them to stop potholes forming in the first place.
'Only where roads are so poor do they need to be completely resurfaced.'
A spokesperson for National Highways said: 'The motorways and major A roads we are responsible for represent around 3% of all roads in England.
'Our most recent assessment shows that over 96% of them are in good condition.
'We undertake road condition surveys across our entire network every year and the results are used to identify resurfacing requirements.
'These defects are categorised and we aim to repair the most serious ones within 24 hours.'
