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Comment by fxtentacle | Hacker News Reader

Road wear scales with weight^2 so if you want to refinance road maintenance off the parking fees, this seems reasonable.

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Fourth power of axle weight, apparently. So (weight/2)^4 for a car or SUV.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law

Also, squishy humans really prefer to not be hit by heavier objects travelling at similar speeds.

Privatizing all roads would ironically probably be the fastest way to cut down on oversized vehicles. Nobody wants to pay a quadratic weighted toll on the GVWR of a bunch of extra SUV, but when they have to pay it all in taxes non-quadratically anyway it's a fuck it go big moment.

Let's see... If we privatize roads and every owner (pinky promise) only makes everyone pay basod on vehicle weight... That almost sounds like a tax based on car weight.

The only reason why an SUV is economical for me is I'm pillaging sedan and small car owners by making them pay my share.

All other things being equal, taller front bumpers and hoods make for worse pedestrian outcomes, as well.

What irks me most is that most children are invisible in the blind spots around SUVs, which typically are seen around school drop off/pickup.

I learned the name "ChildCrusher GTX" from BlueSky. You could also have a ChildCrusher 150 or a ChildCrusher 2500. All are equally detestable.

I still call them “Maibatsu Monstrosity” because my senior year roommate played a lot of GTA 3, and I can still hear that silly radio ad in my head.

It's worse than that, more roughly weight^4

https://pavementinteractive.org/reference-desk/design/design...

This is what road/vehicle taxes are for.

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