The Burrow
Sep 18, 2024
Almost 70% of Australians believe roads aren’t being adequately maintained to avoid tragedies from happening, with heavy rain a huge contributor towards potholes.1 Not only can potholes cause damage to several parts of your car, including your tyres, suspension and steering, but over time, these issues could put drivers at a higher risk of crashing.
As experts in car insurance, we understand the importance of having a policy in place to cover you for the cost of any damage caused to your car, particularly if you hit a pothole and the dip causes you to have an accident! With that in mind, we thought it would make sense to take a look at the cities that are most affected by potholes.
We used search data to see how many searches were performed per capita, to find out the areas where people were looking for more information about the dreaded dips in the road. We looked at different cities across the world as well as in Australia to find out where the roads are likely to be worst – so proceed with caution, and buckle up for a bumpy ride!
It’s not the ranking anyone really wants to come top in – but we can reveal that, based on search data, the pothole capital of Australia is in fact Darwin, where there were 460 searches per month, which works out at an average of 3.56 searches per 1,000 people. The best results were in Sydney, where there were 3,890 searches across a population of 4.6m people, resulting in just 0.84 searches per capita.
Generally speaking, the searches for potholes per capita align against population size – perhaps because larger cities have more infrastructure and larger roads, as opposed to smaller locations where local government may have less investment. But there are some outliers – for example, Hobart and Wollongong have 216,656 and 292,190 people living in their areas respectively, but lower searches per capita than the larger city of Gold Coast.
Over in Europe, the bumpiest ride on the road may well be found in Latvia. The European Road Safety Observatory stated in 2021 that “the quality or road infrastructure in Latvia is perceived as very low compared to other EU countries”.2 Our research shows that despite Latvia’s relatively small population of 1.8m people, there were more than 77,000 searches over the last year, working out at just over 42 searches per 1,000 people. That’s a lot of people looking for information about potholes!
The other countries in our top 5 are largely some of the smallest in Europe – San Marino, Andorra, and Liechtenstein – with the notable exception of the number 3 spot, which goes to Slovakia. With a population of more than 5.5m people, the searches for pothole per 1,000 people are notably high, at almost 26 searches per capita. While Slovakia has a strong motorway system, their road system does have its issues, which led to a campaign for Slovaks to ‘adopt a pothole’, asking them to get involved.3 ‘Adopting’ a pothole involves measuring it, reporting back on the size of the hole over time, and hopefully fixing it – especially in the cold winters when potholes are formed by water freezing and expanding.
In the US, the least-populated state takes the top spot for most pothole searches. Wyoming, with a population of just 576,851, had 2.34 searches per 1,000 population, for a total of 1,350 searches overall.
The larger states can be found at the other end of the spectrum, with Texas having just 0.27 searches for ‘potholes’ per 1,000 people, followed by Florida with 0.31 searches. One notable outlier is California, which is the largest state in the US by population, but there are a lot more searches than you might expect – 14,090, or 0.36 per capita. The numbers aren’t huge, but California potholes are amongst the worst in the country4 – a big deal for a state that depends so heavily on road trips and driving for work, leisure, and travel.
There’s nothing worse than hearing a loud clunk and knowing something’s gone wrong with your car thanks to a pothole in the road. If your vehicle has been damaged by a pothole or a poorly maintained road, you might feel daunted about what to do. Luckily, in some cases, you are entitled to make a claim with your local authorities.
Local authorities have an obligation to keep roads in good condition, and making them aware of a pothole – and claiming for any damage – might encourage them to fix the issues. Every case is different, and there’s no guarantee that your claim will be successful, but here are a few things to consider when claiming for pothole damage.
Adrian Taylor, Executive General Manager of General Insurance at Compare the Market states: “Potholes can be a real annoyance, and dangerous for both drivers and pedestrians alike.
“Unfortunately, even if you have a comprehensive car insurance policy, it’s not guaranteed that you will be covered for damage caused by driving through a pothole.
“It could be a different story, however, if driving through a pothole causes you to swerve and have a major accident, such as hitting a tree or another car.
“Essentially, each policy differs when it comes to restrictions, exclusions and limits, so it’s important to check the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Target Market Determination (TMD) ahead of purchasing so that you understand your level of cover.”
Hopefully, with our tips in mind, you’ll be able to avoid the worst spots for potholes, and you’ll know what to do should you (quite literally) hit a bump in the road! And, if you live in or are travelling to an area that is known for having severe potholes, you can be well-prepared with the knowledge that it’s worth driving carefully in those areas, to avoid any damage to your vehicle, yourself or others.
Our dataset analysed countries in Europe, states in the USA, and regions in Australia, based on the searches for terms around ‘potholes’ per 1,000 people between August 23 – July 24, using data from keywordtool.io.
All figures were calculated per capita. Data on the population of EU countries was sourced from Worldometers, US States population data was sourced from Britannica, and
Australian cities population was sourced from World Population Review. Please note that language data was not available for select countries.
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