Comment 100588

By screencarp (registered) | Posted April 23, 2014 at 22:47:22

As I understand it, they don't really consider cars when planning road lifespans. A city bus is ~800 cars, and trucks ~200-1000 cars worth of road wear depending on the weight per axle. That's why Burlington Street is so bad. This year weather killed the cement/asphalt with rapid freezing and thawing which is why many side streets are in such bad shape. We should probably expect this to be normal in coming years.

So, it doesn't matter very much if there are many, or few cars on the road when it comes maintaining the roads. Bicycle lanes won't really change the cost unless we plan on tearing lanes up and planting grass. I'm all for bike lanes for many other reasons, but I don't think we should expect it to reduce road maintenance very much. Perhaps we need to ensure industrial taxation will pay for the increased road wear along focused and efficient truck routes. We should use good materials to fix our current roads to reduce costs long term (a lot of cheap asphalt is cut with "recycled" motor oil). And yes, we should build better pedestrian and bicycle access into any appropriate major road repairs.

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