Pothole Solution: Supersized Car Tax?

Plan to Fix Potholes by Taxing Drivers Off the Road?!

Potholes. They’re everywhere. Frankly, we’ve had enough. But the latest proposed “solution” to Britain’s ever-worsening road surface scandal? Tax bigger cars more. More tax?! Yes, really. According to campaigners and reports out today, drivers of larger vehicles – think SUVs and family-sized motors – should be taxed more heavily to help pay for pothole repairs. The logic? “Supersized cars = supersized damage.” Well, forgive me for not buying it.

The Real Pothole Problem

Let’s get this straight: potholes are not entirely caused by your average car, electric or petrol. They’re caused by a combination of poor-quality road construction, weather conditions, lack of regular maintenance, and heavy vehicle wear. Here’s how it really works:

• Small cracks form in road surfaces over time due to wear and tear.
• Water seeps into these cracks.
• In colder conditions, the water freezes, expands, and widens those cracks.
• Repeated freeze-thaw cycles eventually break up the tarmac.
• Only then does vehicle traffic – particularly heavy vehicles – start to do serious damage.

And here’s a stat worth screaming about: the heaviest HGV axles cause between 100,000 to 150,000 times more road wear than a standard car axle. Let that sink in. If we’re going to talk about who’s pounding the roads into gravel, it’s not Karen in her Kia Sportage. It’s the constant barrage of lorries delivering everything from bottled water to your Amazon parcels.

Tax on Tax on Tax

Now let’s talk about you, the motorist. Already, you pay:

• VAT on the purchase of your vehicle
• Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) – which now applies to EVs too
• Fuel Duty – plus VAT on top of that fuel
• Congestion Charges, ULEZ, new Tunnel Charges in London, and other low-emission zone charges
• Insurance Premium Tax
• And if your car cost more than £40,000? You’re hit with the luxury car tax too.

EVs used to offer some relief. Not anymore. From this month, even zero-emission vehicles will pay road tax – £10 in year one, then £195 annually, plus an additional £390 if they cost more than £40k. That’s a lot of tax on a vehicle meant to help the environment.

And what about young drivers? Many of them can’t even afford the insurance – never mind the car. Is it any wonder they’re losing interest in driving altogether?

The Fixes We Should Be Talking About

Rather than pointing fingers at SUV owners and dreaming up new ways to fleece motorists, how about fixing potholes properly for once? Here are some ideas – based on real evidence and used around the world:

• Semi-Permanent Repairs: Proper cleaning, shaping, sealing, and compacting of potholes instead of just dumping hot mix in and hoping for the best.
• Spray Injection Patching: High-pressure tech that injects asphalt into cracks, sealing and repairing more effectively.
• Infrared Thermal Patching: Seamless, joint-free repairs using heated asphalt for a watertight fix.
• Polymer Modified Asphalt (PMA): More resilient and elastic road materials that last longer.
• Self-Healing Roads: Sci-fi? Not quite. Experimental materials now exist that can repair themselves using embedded capsules.
• Better Drainage and Preventative Maintenance: Deal with the water issue before it destroys the road surface.
• Robotics & AI: Yep – the future’s here. Some systems can detect and repair defects before they become full-blown craters.

So yeah, there are ways to fix potholes. But that requires investment, innovation, and long-term thinking – all harder, it seems, than reaching for the default “let’s just tax drivers more” solution.

The Inevitable Conclusion

If we keep going like this – taxing SUVs, taxing EVs, taxing every form of vehicle ownership into oblivion – we will end up with pothole-free roads. Because no one will be able to afford to drive on them anymore.

So well done, Britain. We’ll have smooth tarmac stretching across the nation – but the only thing rolling over it will be tumbleweed.

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