trailgumby wrote: ↑Sat May 21, 2022 9:57 pm
elantra wrote: ↑Sat May 21, 2022 4:44 pm
And please don’t try and tell me that restricting their use would push up the cost of housing developments, I am sure that the earth cartage part of the cost for most urban housing developments is only a very small proportion of the total cost of the end result by the time it gets listed on the real estate market
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Actually, excavation is a hugely expensive part of property development and best avoided as far as humanly possible. If you hit rock unexpectedly it can sink your project.
<Puts economist hat on> Nevertheless, if switching out these deadly contraptions to something CLOCS compatible does result in costs going up, it is prima facie evidence that the operators and industry have been making savings by forcing unwanted risks of harm on the rest of the community.
This is the very definition of an externality, much like the increased cost of community healthcare and end of life palliative care imposed on the community by tobacco and vaping companies.
"It will force us to put our rates up" is just business owners begging for a bit of corporate welfare. If it sends them under, they didn't have a viable business model to begin with., because it depended on externalising costs they should be bearing.
Yes I concede that my paragraph is a slight oversimplification of the costs of urban development excavation. I did so mainly for the sake of brevity and because I know from past experience that calls for proper investigation of almost any issue to do with heavy vehicles quickly gets knocked on the head by the “will cost more money” chatter.
I know it is a complex issue, and I also know that there is a unique set of hazards from the use of this particular type of vehicle (rigid body truck + large trailer attached by long drawbar) in urban areas.
These vehicles became popular in Australia about 30 yrs ago and there is a very unfortunate long list of good people (mainly commuter cyclists) who have lost their lives in an appalling way, due wholly or in part to not appreciating the presence of the trailer part of these vehicles.
And that it is an externality in the construction industry which needs to be addressed.
Like I said, when you go overseas you do not generally see this type of truck+trailer combo in urban areas.
In overseas cities you see 8x4 rigid body tippers or tri-axle semi-tippers to do this type of work.
These types of vehicle do not have a following trailer which can “catch” a cyclist when the cyclist is being passed by the vehicle in a congested road environment.