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At the same time, more Americans are buying higher-clearance vehicles as the price and mileage improve. Maybe there are some places where enough people have veh

At the same time, more Americans are buying higher-clearance vehicles as the price and mileage improve. Maybe there are some places where enough people have vehicles with clearance and decent tires where gravel is ok? If gravel is well done and has something to control the dust, you can go 40mph in it. America is also a really really spread out country. I have a hard time seeing why every secondary road needs to be blacktopped if it’s just servicing residential areas.

s0rce 9y ago
You don't need high clearance for a well graded gravel road if it's not rutted or washed out, my little car can do those fine. My old driveway was gravel and not a problem. I'm not sure how you plan to deal with dust though. Also I believe they wear out more rapidly and are suitable for much lower use. For lower use rural roads well maintained gravel roads are an excellent solution.
cup-of-tea 9y ago
And those bigger and heavier vehicles destroy the roads even more quickly. In some parts of the UK the roads are really bad if you don't drive a giant 4x4 (medium sized by US standards), so more people get them, and the roads get even worse. What's more is these giant vehicles make using the road less pleasurable for everyone as now every road is essentially more narrow due to the width of the vehicles and the damage at the edge. It seems obvious to me that these larger vehicles should pay more tax to compensate for the damage and the inconvenience for other road users, but they pay exactly the same amount as small cars. I've driven on gravel roads in South Africa and they often get this bumpy texture to them which is due to people driving on them really fast with big cars. It means if you have a medium-sized car you're stuck doing about 20mph and buggering up your suspension.
- Feniks 9y ago
  Aye here in the Netherlands because of the extremely high traffic density they have to do maintenance on highways every 7 years. When they planned the road network nobody imagined that there would be so many automobiles. First world problems!
- maxerickson 9y ago
  Fuel taxes are at least somewhat proportionate to vehicle size. For gravel roads that have a tight washboard, going 30 mph often results in a smoother ride (the transition is above 20 anyway).
megaman22 9y ago
On a good gravel road, you can go 80 mph... I've seen loaded log trucks doing that on the Golden Road in northern Maine. Of course that is privately maintained road, and the logging and paper companies that own it are invested in keeping serviceable.

s0rce 9y ago

You don't need high clearance for a well graded gravel road if it's not rutted or washed out, my little car can do those fine. My old driveway was gravel and not a problem. I'm not sure how you plan to deal with dust though. Also I believe they wear out more rapidly and are suitable for much lower use. For lower use rural roads well maintained gravel roads are an excellent solution.

cup-of-tea 9y ago

And those bigger and heavier vehicles destroy the roads even more quickly. In some parts of the UK the roads are really bad if you don't drive a giant 4x4 (medium sized by US standards), so more people get them, and the roads get even worse. What's more is these giant vehicles make using the road less pleasurable for everyone as now every road is essentially more narrow due to the width of the vehicles and the damage at the edge. It seems obvious to me that these larger vehicles should pay more tax to compensate for the damage and the inconvenience for other road users, but they pay exactly the same amount as small cars. I've driven on gravel roads in South Africa and they often get this bumpy texture to them which is due to people driving on them really fast with big cars. It means if you have a medium-sized car you're stuck doing about 20mph and buggering up your suspension.

Feniks 9y ago
Aye here in the Netherlands because of the extremely high traffic density they have to do maintenance on highways every 7 years. When they planned the road network nobody imagined that there would be so many automobiles. First world problems!
maxerickson 9y ago
Fuel taxes are at least somewhat proportionate to vehicle size. For gravel roads that have a tight washboard, going 30 mph often results in a smoother ride (the transition is above 20 anyway).

megaman22 9y ago

On a good gravel road, you can go 80 mph... I've seen loaded log trucks doing that on the Golden Road in northern Maine. Of course that is privately maintained road, and the logging and paper companies that own it are invested in keeping serviceable.