Taxed roads
Question: What causes the corrugations in dirt or sand roads after they have
been used by vehicles for several weeks? Why do the corrugations occur with the
same frequency despite differences in vehicle tyres and wheel diameters?
(continued)
Answer: Further to the answers already given, there is a similar phenomenon
with railway tracks. These degenerate over time into “roaring rails”, well-known
on British railways and here in Toronto on our streetcar system. The cure is to
grind the rails back to smoothness.
The exact process in the case of railways is unknown, but is it in fact the…
