The one thing (other than the push to privatise roads and create a mass surveillance network) that I don’t ever understand about the perpetual moaning about roads and how right wing drivers seem to have a traumatic meltdown whenever they see an orange road cone, is how they never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever blame the things that creates the vast majority of the pot holes – TRUCKS!
Maintenance is the overlooked and unsexy part of funding new roads, but it’s incredibly important. And when discussing how to pay for it, it’s important to ask: what does the damage? The answer, overwhelmingly, is trucks. Approximately 80% of all road maintenance costs in New Zealand are the result of the damage caused by trucks. According to some estimates, one truck does the equivalent damage to a road of 800 to 1000 cars.
This is a spiralling problem. As rail has declined due to underfunding, freight has shifted to roads, leading to heavier trucking volumes, more road damage and higher costs to taxpayers.
…80% of the damage comes from Trucks and because the Trucking Industry has its hands around the balls of the National, ACT and NZF Parties, they are forever allowed to be blameless when it comes to the wear and tear of our roads!
Instead of properly funding rail and domestic sea shipping, we have allowed the Trucks to just buy their way onto the roads, roads they then destroy and we all end up paying more for.
Right wing drivers are not only selfish, they refuse to blame the Truckers and instead howl endlessly about bike lanes and parking.
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https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/571757/extensive-measures-in-place-to-manage-kiwirail-director-s-conflict-of-interests
Yer.. Right
The irony is National campaigned at the last election on pot holes and the state of our roads, of which they were the creators of those problems.
Remember who increased the tonnage on our roads? National.
Na, it’s all Labours fault.
I spoke to a mad hatter on tuesday who was complaining about road workers on the state hiway having road cones out when they were cleaning and repairing signs .When I asked him if he would be happy working on the road side while 50 ton trucks are going past at 90 kph less than a meter away ,the answer was fuck that bro .I rest my case .Why would any person be happy to see any worker die on the job because some stupid idiot got elected and has never stepped out side in her life and decides we dont need cones or scafhold to keep workers safe and uninjured .
Yes, and the number of potholes is increasing as Slimeon is busy wrecking our health system and the potholes are being neglected. Time for new pothole minister.
The simple formula that needs to be understood is the impact on roads of heavier vehicles.
“Higher axle loads cause a disproportionately faster rate of road wear, as damage increases at a much higher power of the axle weight, not just linearly. For instance, doubling an axle’s weight can result in up to 16 times more pavement damage, a concept known as the fourth power rule. This rule is crucial in pavement design and maintenance because it highlights that a few heavy trucks can cause significantly more wear than many lighter vehicles.”
This simple statement might make one think that a truck causes perhaps 16 times the damage of an ordinary car, and that RUCs cover that. But cars typically do not exceed 1 tonne per axle, but heavy trucks go up to 6 or 8 tonnes per axle or 1296 – 4096 times as much damage. They are not coming anywhere near paying for this.
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