Edinburgh is Scotland’s pothole capital

The true depth of Scotland’s pothole problem revealed 

• Scroll to the murky depths of Scotland’s combined 154,000¹ potholes reported in 2016 using interactive animation –

• Confused.com’s scrolling animation reveals Scotland has the greatest pothole problem in the UK, drilling down OVER SIX KILOMETRES² deep – that’s deeper than the Mediterranean Sea.
• The animation’s regional view reveals Edinburgh has the deepest pothole problem in Scotland, with a total depth of OVER ONE KILOMETRE.
• Scroll the total depth of the UK’s potholes combined, which is more than 40km deep – almost FOUR TIMES the depth of the Pacific Ocean.
• In 2016, Scottish councils forked out almost £27,000,000 to repair potholes and more than £226,000 in compensation to those who’ve had their car damaged by craters in the road.

As the cold weather starts to set in, more and more potholes may start to appear on roads – a dreaded issue for both drivers and local councils. New research presented in a scrolling animation reveals just how deep Scotland’s pothole problem goes, and it is far worse than it appears on the surface.

A freedom of information request by Confused.com, the driver saving site, reveals a total of 154,310 potholes were reported to the region’s councils in 2016 – more than in any other UK region. Each local authority was asked for the minimum depth of a road defect to be considered a pothole, and this figure was aggregated against the total number to reveal a depth of over 6km (6,364m).

The animation allows users to visualise the true depth of the region’s potholes combined, scrolling passed iconic recorded depths such as the bottom of the English Channel (174m), Loch Ness (230m), and the Mediterranean Sea (5,270m). Users can then scroll all the way passed the Mariana Trench (11km) and the world’s deepest man-made hole (12.3km) into the Earth’s upper mantle (30km) before arriving at the combined depth of the UK’s 1,033,486 potholes. This is over 40 km deep and 3.7 times the depth of the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean.

The animation also allows users to drill down to specific local authority areas, and Edinburgh comes out on top for having the deepest pothole problem of the region.

Having this many potholes can be a very costly job for councils, as they fork out for repairs, as well as compensation to victims of damage caused by the craters in the road. In fact, a third (33%) of motorists in the UK say their car has been damaged by a pothole.

• In 2016, the region’s councils spent a whopping £26,830,077 repairing potholes.
• They also spent a combined sum of £226,238 to compensate drivers for damage to cars caused by potholes.

Top 5 local authority areas within Scotland with the biggest pothole problem, ranked by depth

Local authority areas	No. of potholes reported	Total depth	£ spent on repairs	£ spent on compensation
City of Edinburgh	35,329	1,413m	n/a	£69,385
Fife	29,188	1,168m	£975,000	£519
Dumfries & Galloway	26,028	1,041m	£1,820,892	£7,755
Glasgow City	13,128	525m	£1,035,793	£16,945
Perth & Kinross	6,059	364m	£746,157	£1,949

Amanda Stretton, motoring editor at Confused.com, said: “Scrolling to depths of more than 40km really puts into perspective just how deep the UK’s pothole problem really is. They are a major bugbear among drivers, not least because of the damage they do to our vehicles – around £3.1 million worth of damage, which has been paid out by almost half of the UK’s councils.

“If drivers experience a bump in the road, they should report it to their local council as soon as possible before the problem gets any worse. The cost of motoring alone is getting more and more expensive and damage repairs is a big contributor to this, as car parts increase in price as well.

“For advice on pothole damage, and other ways to save on motoring costs, drivers can find more information at Confused.com.”