alt Hacker NewsMaybe roads would last longer if we weren't all being forced to buy super heavy SUVs just so automakers can skirt emissions and fuel economy requirements.
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I've heard that cars have negligible impact on roads. 99% damage comes from heavy haul trucks, especially those who violate weight restrictions.
By the way, I've never seen SCALES OPEN sign for the trucks, it's always SCALES CLOSED, or maybe I'm just extremely unlucky.
I don’t think SUV vs car makes a meaningful difference when e.g. delivery vans and garbage trucks exist.
How are we being forced to buy SUVs? There are plenty of regular cars for sale.
The one thing I noticed in NA is that it takes ages to rebuild a road. I have close to zero experience in road construction, but a bit weird to see how they can repave a km stretch of a road here in Tokyo within a week or two, but it took months in other cities i've lived in.
Maybe they do a lot of extra work over night over here in Tokyo, and it just goes faster? Or it's a very systematic thing and part of the maintenance schedules, so it doesn't really go that bad?
Even if it were caused by passenger cars, the skyrocketing brightness of lights at sedan height probably push more people to buy large cars than this. In a just world, cars with ridiculously bright lights would be crushed in a monster car rally. Alas the cops don't even pull them over.
I think another factor of road wear is better handling cars. People are able to drive more aggressively and accelerate more efficiently then ever before. Taking tight turns at high speeds or accelerating from dead stop does wear out roads more due to higher traction from driving behavior and characteristics…
People in cities generally want deliveries of goods, which requires heavy trucks.
No one is "forcing" anyone to buy a "super heavy SUV. Make a better argument.
> Maybe roads would last longer if we weren't all being forced to buy super heavy SUVs
Maybe not.
Due to battery weight, EVs are super heavy even if they aren't SUVs, so are delivery trucks without which an urban community cannot and will not exist. Urban roads should be able to handle the weight even if everyone converted to EVs.
Typical meme. Passenger vehicles of any type cause negligible road wear. The weight of a sedan (say, 4000lbs) versus a light truck (say, 6000lbs) is just not significant, further the ground pressure will be close due to tire sizing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_pressure)
Road wear is a power law, and heavy trucks cause the wear https://blog.ucs.org/dave-cooke/trucks-cause-the-lions-share...
People buy SUV's because they want to avoid being injured in crashes (at the detriment of the other driver)
"Forced"???
A lot of EVs are heavier than SUVs... but don't let facts get in the way of your crusade.
For people that don't watch the video (I don't even know if this is in the video): road wear is a function of axle weight to the fourth power. [0]
That means a 6,000lb escalade creates 3x the road wear than a 4,500 wagoneer from 1990.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law