I'm becoming an amateur geologist, my specialty is miniature tectonic shifts, aka, potholes.
These road imperfections come in many forms. You have the out and out pothole, a section of non-road surrounded by actual road. The non-road bit can be dirt, rocks, sand, you name it. To be avoided at all cost. Then there are the patch jobs, which generally are hazards in and of themselves. Either the patch starts sinking into the very hole it was meant to repair, or the patchers are a bit overzealous leaving a bump about as high as the hole was deep. My friend Pamela refers to these as "potlumps." The biggest potlumps I've ever seen are on Route 110 on my new commute. The are at least three inches high and traverse the entire road. No bobbing and weaving here, just get out of the saddle and brace for impact.
The there are the proactive DPW's that try to nip potholes right in the bud by dribbling tar over every sign of a crack. This leaves you a road surface with a sort of magic fingers effect, although it usually comes out more jarring than soothing.
I'm getting pretty good at predicting when the next deformation will occur. Was riding down Maple Street a while ago, and noticed some small new cracks in the pavement. Now, from vast experience, I knew this was a harbinger of things to come, from that tiny fissure a giant pothole would grow. Sure enough, now there's an area the size of a manhole cover depressed about an inch. I'm sure by this time next year it will be a full blown hazard.
A bit further down this very road is a spot that is a constant problem. It's a shady spot, at a low point in the road. In winter, when it gets above freezing, all the thawed ice collects there, freezes again, etc., etc. The town has made many valiant efforts at patching it, but it is a losing proposition, you can't fight mother nature. The unfortunate fact is that those shady tree lined roads that are the most scenic roads to cycle also have the worst potholes because of the freezing/thawing cycle that is a daily occurrence most of the winter. At its worst in winter you get a giant section of black ice that you have to use the left side of the road to circumnavigate.
There's been a lot of laying of water and sewer pipe, Chelmsford is noteworthy for this. If you're really lucky, they will repave the whole road (wahoo!) but generally, all that happens is that the DPW creates a trench where the road was dug up to lay the pipe. This is always inferior to the original pavement, and, depending on the skill of the town DPW, can range from merely lumpy to downright scary. The pathological case is where the trench is an inch or two lower than the rest of the road, and zigzags all over, so that you find yourself riding in the trench for a while, then have to climb out, making sure you don't hit the great divide at a bad angle and FDGB (Fall Down Go Boom.)
What's really curious are the roads with no visible imperfections that nonetheless give a really bumpy ride. Curve Street is becoming like that. For many years, it was dead man's curve—a combination of steep downhill, curvy road, and many potholes to avoid. Then they repaved it, and for a while life was good. But shortly thereafter, it started to develop lumpiness, so you felt like you were riding a bucking bronco. Even more treacherous since you weren't expecting it.
No matter how careful I am, there are some potholes that always manage to suck me in. There's one on South Acton Road. I know it's there, it's actually marked with a couple of warning chevrons, but invariably as I'm riding there, I'm looking the wrong way, etc., and I run into it.
So when navigating the land of potholes, keep a tight grip on the handlebars and make sure your tires are fully inflated.
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