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Comment by shiftpgdn | Hacker News Reader

This should be obvious to anyone with eyes too. Go look at a neighborhood with no or low through traffic and extremely old roads are in good condition. Meanwhile a nearby through-fare, unless constantly repaired and patched, will be falling apart.

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Even the low traffic roads in freeze-thaw regions need constant repair. So it's not all weight related. Weight is a factor that really only matters once you start looking at commercial size vehicles.

Also look at your local bus terminals. That asphalt is damaged beyond belief, even though it sees next to no traffic.

A few dozen buses a day braking and accelerating on the same patch of street over and over will wreck it.

Thanks, asphalt!

Yeah - it happens to concrete, too ...but it takes way longer

In my area its immediately obvious which lanes and roads have bus routes. A three-lane each way road will have two nearly pristine lanes and one completely beat to hell. Guess which one the bus takes.

There's a ghost town in california called new idria. Obviously, very little traffic on the road leading to it. The pavement surface is probably 50 years old and in reasonable shape except for certain areas that make you wish you brought a 4x4

I would expect a neighborhood, even where everyone owns a semi to have significantly less wear than a thorough-faire that sees a lot of traffic. But even that didn't tell you everything. A good quality asphalt will out last a poor one pretty much no matter the conditions. We have a stretch of road near us that is always in bad shape, when another stretch, seeing the exact same traffic is in good condition.

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