What do the French do that we don’t? That was my thought as I drove my wife and daughter back from France along mile after mile of pancake-smooth autoroute last week. The obvious answer is funding. Almost all of those motorway miles were on toll roads, with some of the longer stretches relieving my credit card of £40 or more – equivalent to around 13 pence per mile. As Brits, the concept is alien; many of us will actively avoid the Dartford Crossing or M6 Toll to save a couple of quid, but to the French it’s part and parcel of car ownership. Except as soon as we turned off the main route in search of picturesque towns and villages, the unblemished tarmac remained. Sure, it was a little more cambered in places, but I can count on one hand the number of potholes that caused me or my discerning passengers any discomfort. In the UK, you can’t drive more than a couple of hundred yards before dodging a crater big enough to buckle a wheel, or a piece of shrapnel capable of obliterating a new tyre. Stranded motorists litter (in more ways than one) the hard shoulders. It’s not as if we’re subjected to particularly harsh winters. Paris sees similar lows to London, and although Manchester is wetter, it’s barely any cooler. Frosts are becoming less common, too, as global temperatures rise year on year. Britain’s failing road network therefore likely comes down to one of two things: poor workmanship, or the weight of traffic. France’s motorway network is roughly three times the size of the UK’s, despite hosting roughly the same number of vehicles. It’s probably a bit of both: National Highways skimping on tools and materials, plus a network already bursting at the seams. It’s an unenviable combination; pothole damage is believed to affect an estimated 12.8 million UK drivers every year. Cars aren’t getting any lighter, and I doubt people will start chopping in their sturdy SUVs for space-saving superminis. So am I advocating road charging? Not necessarily, but if the Government is set on implementing a pay-per-mile tax for electric and hybrid drivers, why not open another can of worms at the same time? The near-£11billion it could generate would go a long way to resurfacing our 2,300 miles of pockmarked motorways, and maybe there’d even be some left over to fix the gaping cavity at the top of the exit ramp 100 yards after disembarking at the cross-channel train terminal in Folkestone. Honestly, you couldn’t make it up…
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