Pot hole repairs and poor demented souls

Have you noticed anything different about the roads lately? Yes, the actual road surface. Cyclists are almost alone in observing to road surface in any great detail - it really matters what the road surface is like: which sunken or raised manholes you have to avoid, the patches which mark the location of earlier roadworks - these are called 'utility scars' in the US of A apparently - and the rippled oil covered surfaces of bus stops.
After a little while of doing a particular ride, you end up with a route within a route which you use to pick your way through the worst bits
But have you noticed that it is that time of year again when spray painted white boxes are starting to appear around some of the worst areas signalling their impending filling in.
There is a received wisdom that local authorities condense road repair activity into the months running up to April.  So the discourse goes, this is due to 'the road department using up its budget' to 'make sure it gets the same budget next year'.

A favourite at local authority Christmas parties apparently 

I've no idea if this is true or not.  But it doesn't it make sense to hold your repair budget back a bit incase something really bad happens?  And then, if it doesn't, splurge it on doing as much as you can to keep the roads going for as long as possible?
In an ideal world, the roads would have a smooth layer of tarmac, be regularly swept and have bike lanes on them.  But, alas, that's not going to happen, ever - well not teh smooth bit anyway.
So, what can you do?  Well, you can report pot holes to 'the road department' and see if you can get the buggers filled in, pronto.
You can find out how to do this over on the Sharp Edge Trip blog which can find a link to on the right or here if your mouse wont scurry that far.
Happy pot hole spotting.