This article is incorrect, at least based on times i've looked into wear and tear on the road in the past. 4.5 tons over two axles is approximately 25 times th

This article is incorrect, at least based on times i've looked into wear and tear on the road in the past. 4.5 tons over two axles is approximately 25 times the damage of a sedan with 1 ton of weight on each axle. But that's not the same as a semi truck dealing 625 times as much damage as the sedan, or nearly 25 times as much damage as the Hummer EV. Given it costs over $100,000, I don't see 25x as many Hummer EVs hitting the road than big rigs in any given year. > Consider a standard sedan with two axles and a total weight of 2 tons. Assuming an even distribution, each of its axles would bear the weight of 1 ton. Now consider a semitruck with eight axles and a weight of 40 tons -- each of its axles would weigh 5 tons. The relative damage done by each axle of the truck can be calculated with the following equation, and comes out to 625 times the damage done by each axel of the sedan. > Considering that the truck has eight axles and the sedan has two, the relative damage caused by the entire semitruck would be 625 x (8/2) -- 2,500 times that of the sedan. > “The damage due to cars, for practical purposes, when we are designing pavements, is basically zero. It’s not actually zero, but it’s so much smaller -- orders of magnitude smaller -- that we don’t even bother with them,” said Karim Chatti, a civil engineer from Michigan State University in East Lansing. Not the same for bridges though: > In reality, the relationship is more complicated. For instance, adding extra axles increases the total weight of the vehicle, making it more damaging, especially to bridges, where the total weight instead of axle weight is the main concern. https://www.insidescience.org/news/how-much-damage-do-heavy-trucks-do-our-roads https://www.insidescience.org/news/how-much-damage-do-heavy-...