Our roads have more craters than the moon. Ahead of the Commonwealth Games, cyclists and motorists should join forces to report them all, writes Herald columnist Marissa MacWhirter.

It was just after 9am on Wednesday morning when I stepped out of Buchanan Bus Station and onto the windswept streets towards Glasgow Central Station.

After a long overdue trip to Budapest to visit a friend, I’m relieved that the trains are running post-Union Corner fire again (this is the top slice of sourdough on my returning-to-Glasgow-post-holiday feedback sandwich). Juggling an overstuffed tote bag between aching shoulders and wiping murky streaks of rain from my face, I’m overcome with that post-vacation perceptual reset. I see the city with the gaze of a tourist, and I’m crestfallen.

Everywhere you look, there are potholes, rubble, Heras fencing, plastic roadwork barriers, pop-up homeless tents, vacant shop units, vacant restaurant units, vacant buildings, derelict buildings, unfinished building sites – you get the idea. Getting right back on that bus and heading straight back to the airport does cross my mind, but I persevere. Inside Central Station, I’m greeted by the Longines Countdown Clock for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games. We have about 16 weeks to go. Oh boy.

The next morning, Thursday, I decide altruism could be the answer to my crippling state-of-Glasgow depression. I think of the Artemis II circling the blue sky overhead, carrying astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than fifty years, and I’ve got it. Potholes. Craters are for the moon, not Scotland’s largest city.

Road surface on Grange Road in Glasgow. (Image: Newsquest)

Glasgow City Council has a statutory duty to manage and maintain all adopted public roads, which means sorting out the potholes. The most commonly cited informal benchmark for fixing a pothole is a 40mm depth, according to the RAC, but this has........

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