Faster repair of potholes has been credited with halving the number of claims for government compensation by ACT road users in the past two years.
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Highlighted by a 70 per cent drop in complaints about road pavements, figures obtained by the Sunday Canberra Times show 81 claims were lodged in 2014 to the ACT government or its insurers.
The lag in settlement times and case-by-case nature of complaints means the rapid fall has yet to equate to lower annual payouts, with nearly $700,000 paid to road users last year, more than double the 2012 figure.
Roads ACT Traffic Management and Safety senior manager Rifaat Shoukrallah said a change in practice by road crews about two years ago was the most obvious reason for the sharp fall in claims.
"Our service standard for fixing a pothole is within a seven day period," he said.
"[But] if it takes seven days, there's a chance somebody else will fall in the pothole and we get extra claims.
"Service standards haven't changed... but now by far the majority are fixed within 24 hours -- I think that's what has made the biggest difference."
More than $6 million has been paid out by or on behalf of the government in the last five years, but 2013 accounted for $4.26 million due largely to the closure of a claim from a single 2006 incident.
A Territory and Municipal Services spokesman said the directorate would not provide details on cases due to privacy.
Mr Shoukrallah, who has served in his current role for 14 years, said a new analysis of data since 2012, which focused on trouble suburbs and the most common types of hazards, may also have aided the fall in claims.
"By and large the majority of the complaints/claims are about potholes or road pavements, or the pedestrian related issues – on footpaths or paving," he said.
"[The latter] tend to focus around town centres – Civic, Belconnen, the malls, footpaths -- and the potholes tend to be more on the arterial road system, not on the suburban roads or streets."
Mr Shoukrallah said there were now between 100 and 120 active claims, and in general between 20 and 30 per cent of applications were referred to an external organisation or person who was to blame.
NRMA ACT Road Safety Trust chairman Don Aitkin said he was not aware of the reason for the "great news" on the drop in claims, but complimented the Roads ACT team led by Tony Gill.
