c/fuck_cars · by aetherius@lemmy.ml · 128d

SUVs are making Britain’s potholes worse, say scientists

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/11/suv-britain-potholes-worse-scientists-heavier-cars

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/58332025

95 points · 11 comments · view on lemmy.world

11 Comments

Egoist mentality : "I'm scared of others, I need a car that looks like a tank so that at least I'm safe, even it means other are less so."

Arguably capitalism is fostering "optimizations" but unfortunately it does so entirely amorally. When the only metric is profit then everything else becomes a negative externality to ignore.

TL;DR: yep.

racoon@lemmy.ml · 13 pts · 128d

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Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 10 pts · 127d

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user_name@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 128d (2 replies)

Road wear is ~n^4 where n is vehicle weight. Of course it’s because of SUVs.

Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 1 pts · 127d (1 reply)

So if if a 400 lb motorbike costs 1 penny per mile in road damage, the 4000 lb SUV should be paying 60 bucks and the 40,000 lb tractor trailer 1 million dollars?

Or is it divided by contact area?

ltxrtquq@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 124d

The fourth power law (also known as the fourth power rule) is a rule of thumb which states that the stress on the road caused by a motor vehicle increases in proportion to the fourth power of its axle load.

First line of the linked wikipedia article.

friend_of_satan@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 127d

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DudleyMason@lemmy.ml · -1 pts · 128d (2 replies)

Good, sell your car and ride the bus/train. If you live somewhere that isn't feasible, move somewhere it is.

Every pothole that makes keeping a car untenable is actually the hero every traffic cop thinks he'll be someday.

Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 1 pts · 127d (1 reply)

The group that's most at risk due to bad road conditions, motorcycles, did nothing to deserve this.

DudleyMason@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 127d

They're still using an internal combustion engine in a personal vehicle. They're still destroying the ecosystem for their own minor convenience.

Fuck em, I hope they crash.

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · -2 pts · 128d (3 replies)

Why target SUVs when EVs are even heavier.

umbrella@lemmy.ml · 16 pts · 128d

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queermunist@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 127d

They're actually very similar weights.

Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 127d

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ThomasWilliams@lemmy.world · -4 pts · 127d (3 replies)

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utopiah@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 127d

Prof Christian Brand, the emeritus professor in transport at Kellogg College,
This guy doesn’t even have a degree.

I really hope you are a troll lobbying for the car industry ... because a rando questioning the credential of an Oxford professor which we can verify with a single DuckDuckGo query reading "Professor Christian Brand is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist, physicist and geographer with over 25 years research experience in academic and consultancy environments." from the page of one of the most prestigious university in the World, for centuries, is really weird.

It doesn't mean though that appeal to authority is right and thus that whatever Prof Christian Brand writes is correct. It's not because he's a professor researching in the area of expertise of the paper that he's right... but his credentials are definitely on point.

Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 127d

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dogs0n@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 127d

Pretty sure they are scientists. It's a broad term as far as I know, and anyways these are (probably) smart people (judging by their titles/jobs) and what they are saying or concluding from data is just common sense: heavier car = more wear and tear on road surfaces.

Anyways: Are you saying it could be EVs too? That's probably likely to be causing some of this too, I think they are generally 500kg heavier than gas cars.

Another reason to add to the "EVS ARENT THE SOLUTION" pile?