4 ms·

I don't disagree that large cars create externalities, but what proportion of costs scale with axle weight? In the UK the most recent budget allocates £1.6 bil

• michaelt 10mo ago
  Basically, it’s well known that fully laden 44 tonne articulated lorries making sharp turns do a lot of damage to roads. That’s who in industrial estates you’ll often find concrete roads, instead of tarmac, for lorries making 90 degree turns. American style trucks might be big, but presumably they’re nowhere near 44 tonnes. Of course, articulated lorries only drive on major roads; your average residential road gets no lorries, so all the wear is from smaller vehicles.
  • rascul 10mo ago
    > American style trucks might be big, but presumably they’re nowhere near 44 tonnes. I believe the typical limit is 40 tons. I don't know if our tons are the same as your tonnes.
    • Aloisius 10mo ago
      The US limit is typically 80,000 lbs, so 36.29 megagrams (aka "metric" tons). The EU countries have limits of 40 Mg or higher (except Albania). Netherlands allows vehicles up to 50 Mg. Of course this is all for 5+ axle vehicles. A 5-axle 40 Mg big rig is putting a 8 Mg of load on each axle (if it was perfectly distributed). A Dodge RAM 1500 loaded up has a gross vehicle weight of about 3.27 Mg - about 1.64 Mg/axle. Fourth power law means about 566 loaded RAMs would equal one about 40 Mg 5-axle big rig in terms of road damage.
    • yurishimo 10mo ago
      They’re close enough as to not matter a whole lot for this discussion.
  • jeltz 10mo ago
    44 tonnes is not that big. Sweden allows for the insane limit of 64 or 74 tonnes, depending on the road. American trucks are typically smaller than European.