Do SUVs Cause More Wear and Tear Than Others?

"Mayor Daley's plan to sock it to the owners of sport utility vehicles with a $90 city sticker fee is based on a false premise: that vehicles weighing over 4,500 pounds cause more wear and tear on roads than cars. Engineering and transportation experts...insisted that roads are typically designed for heavy trucks that weigh 'at least double,' if not 10 times what an SUV does." A professor of civil and architectural engineering at IIT commented: " 'Don't get me wrong, I don't like SUVs. They're wasteful vehicles that contribute to greater air pollution, further deplete petroleum resources, take up parking spaces and intimidate other drivers. But if they're going to use an argument, they should use a rational argument. That one doesn't hold water. It doesn't contribute to the degradation of the roads any more than an ordinary passenger vehicle would.' "