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Or we can have those that cause damage to the roads actually pay for it, instead of regressively taxing the poor. A semi causes 1,400x more wear on the same str
by ProfessorLayton 9y ago
Or we can have those that cause damage to the roads actually pay for it, instead of regressively taxing the poor. A semi causes 1,400x more wear on the same stretch of road than a car! [1]
[1] https://www.lrrb.org/pdf/201432.pdf https://www.lrrb.org/pdf/201432.pdf
- ProAm 9y agoThey also buy way more gas and as a result pay more taxes.
- rtkwe 9y agoYes but their gas usage doesn't scale as fast as the damage caused by their increased weight.
- ProAm 9y agoSource? I honestly dont know, highways never seem that damaged between cities tbh.
- rtkwe 9y agohttp://archive.gao.gov/f0302/109884.pdf http://archive.gao.gov/f0302/109884.pdf page 36 "A 1962 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Road Test Report shows that concentrating large amounts of weight on a single axle multiplies the impact of the weight exponentially. Test results show that an automobile axle weighing 2,000 pounds would have to pass over an interstate highway 7,550 times to have the same impact as 20,000 pounds concentrated on a single truck axle. As a result, the impact of heavy trucks on pavement is disproportionately greater than the weight carried." There's a lot of similar sources out there.
- ProAm 9y agoAren't most trucks multi-axle and have distributed weight?
- ravar 9y agoTo put some numbers to this, lets take the model that damage scales with weight per surface area to the fourth power. If you double the number of axles but maintain the same weight. Then there is half as much stress on twice as much area, 16x less damage per area, 2x area. 8x less total damage.
- rtkwe 9y agoYes, but at an average of 40000 lbs over the 5 axles they are still multiple times heavier per axle than a regular car.
- ravar 9y agohttp://www.weibull.com/hotwire/issue116/hottopics116.htm http://www.weibull.com/hotwire/issue116/hottopics116.htm Usually the damage done on a material varies by the stress to some power, not exponentially, as in the link. My understanding is the damage to asphalt scales with the 4th (ish) power of stress, which is in line with the provided numbers. 20,000/2,000=10 , 10^4 is roughly 7,550.
- TulliusCicero 9y agoYou're not just paying for the damage done, you're paying for the space. If all cars weighed a pound, you'd still need to maintain and repair the road due to aging/weather damage.
- kcorbitt 9y agoLicense plates are already tied to the class of vehicle. This regulatory regime would make it easier to implement what you're proposing, not harder.