Road Conditions & Thinking Slow

After many years of driving my small commuter car to and from work, I have suddenly noticed a large increase in hazards littering the freeway.
I was driving home from a late night shift, when I was suddenly aware of something in front of me on the road. At 100km speed, I didn't have fast enough reflexes to swerve out of my lane and bypass the hazard. The next thing I knew, I had hit the object and a loud scraping sound indicated it was stuck underneath the car. I managed to move into the emergency lane and tried to dislodge the object. It was extremely unnerving, with the car shaking every time someone went past. I eventually drove home, off the freeway, at a slow speed and had the object removed at home.
it was a large piece of plastic from the front-end of a car.
Since then I've noticed a lot more stuff on the road, more potholes and more hazardous conditions.
So why am I noticing this now? Is there any change to the road conditions. Has the abnormal number of rainy days meant the road is more prone to pot-holes?

Or is this an example of association bias, priming, halo effect? Having had a problem, I'm more likely to see more of the same problems than I would have previously?
My current reading, "Thinking Fast & Slow" by Daniel Kahneman may give me some insights into halo effects, association bias, irrational thinking. So far its a very interesting book.
More chocolate consumption coming up I think(pg 43)!
But perhaps Vicroads needs to look at the state of the roads.
And why not public transport you ask? That is another Melbourne story!