Road damage by vehicles

The damage inflicted by vehicles largely depends on the weight of the vehicles.

How Much Damage Do Heavy Trucks Do to Our Roads? explains the damage roughly follows the generalized fourth power law. In other words, the ratio of the damage inflicted by two vehicles with a weight and would be:

In other words, if something is twice heavier, it will damage the road 16 times more.

This also means that, compared with an average car, Bicycles inflict negligible (< 0.0001) damage to the road. In other words, Bicycle is efficient.

There is also natural freeze-thaw cycle and rain that damage the road. So, the important question is how long does road last if it’s for cars vs. bicycles.

See also Chart of the Day: Vehicle Weight vs Road Damage Levels