More than 1,500 people have signed a pothole petition calling on Fife Council to take urgent action.
It comes after it emerged almost 3,000 road defects have been identified across the region in the last three months.
Linda Holt, All for Unity councillor for East Neuk and Landward, said she launched the online petition “out of desperation” because Fife’s roads have never been in a worse state.
It took just a week for the number of signatures to top 1,500.
Ms Holt said the issue was costing individuals and businesses thousands of pounds in vehicle damage and compensation from the council’s insurers is “virtually impossible to access.”
“Facebook is full of people complaining about dangerous potholes and reporting damage to their vehicles as a result – there is even a dedicated Facebook page,” she said.
“I don’t believe the powers that be at Fife Council realise how seriously fed up we are with the state of the roads – and how fed up we are with reporting potholes, the majority of which do not get repaired until they become life-threatening emergencies.”
Latest figures show there were 2,878 potholes identified by the council between December 1 and the end of February.
Ms Holt said the local authority had managed to “avoid” 363 out of 367 insurance claims for pothole damage last year.
“The SNP/Labour administration at Fife Council is proposing to bring forward £2 million this year and next year on road resurfacing, but this is not new money, and it comes from the capital budget, so cannot be used for pothole repairs or patching,” she said.
“It is a drop in the ocean. Many wards in Fife will notice no difference.”
Councillor Altany Craik, convener of the economy, tourism, strategic planning and transportation sub-committee, said the authority was diverting roadworkers onto pothole repairs to try to clear the backlog.
He said the aftermath of wet wintry weather always leads to more problems at this time of year but a particularly cold January had made the current situation “exceptional”.
Mr Craik said: “What’s been particularly challenging is that many of these potholes have formed while crews have been working around the clock to keep our roads safe from ice and snow over the past few weeks.
“We share everyone’s frustration that we now have so many to deal with.
“In response, we’re taking full advantage of the mild weather to divert most of our roadworkers from their other work onto pothole repairs.
“These extra teams are working seven days a week at the moment to clear the backlog of pothole repairs as quickly as possible.”
He urged people to report potholes at www.fife.gov.uk/reportit or by calling the helpline on 03451 55 00 11 but warned other projects may have to take a back seat as a result.
“As we use all our resources to prioritise this, some less pressing road work will inevitably take longer to complete than originally planned,” he said.