🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <935225175215@ibm3090.bham.ac.uk> TREHARAJ@ibm3090.bham.ac.uk writes:
>:>
>:>>
>:>>and also the less quantifiable costs which everyone contributes to:
>:>>
>:>>cost of road repairs caused by every extra car on the road
>:>>cost of new roads / road widening needed due to the extra cars on the road
>:>>cost of pollution
>:>>
>:>>On that basis, public transport is cheaper not only for individuals but for
>:>>society as a whole.
>:>>
>:>
>:>This would appear to assume that buses (in particular) cause less
>:>damage to roads, require less road space and cause less pollution than
>:>cars.
>:>
>:>The first is clearly untrue. <deleted>
>:>
>:>
>Why? One bus will cause more damage than one car, but the arguement is
>not for us all to go and buy a bus, it's that we should share the use of
>one. One bus vs. several cars? Clearly preferable.
>

No.

Road damage increases dramatically with axle weight. This means that
a typical bus, weighing ~10 times the weight of a typical car, will
cause MUCH more than 10 times the damage of 1 car.

If you want anecdotal evidence of this, take a look at the road surface
at a bus stop that has not been reinforced. Alternatively, look at the
surface of a road that has a long standing bus lane. The results are
dramatic!



Bob



-- 
R.J.Hendley@cs.bham.ac.uk
School of Computer Science			Phone: +44 21 414 4761
University of Birmingham			Home:  +44 21 444 8656
PO Box 363, Birmingham, UK			Fax:   +44 21 414 4281