When you’re walking or driving, you often take for granted the streets and roadways you’re using. You may hit a pothole here or there, curse when you do it, then continue on your way. If you’re walking, you may have to detour around some particular obstacle, but in the end you still get to where you’re going. The road surface you’re walking or driving on can affect you in more ways than you know. Here’s why road surface matters.
There are two primary road surfaces used: Asphalt and concrete. You’ll typically find the latter making up sidewalks and other pedestrian walkways. Asphalt is mostly used for roads and highways, although sometimes you’ll find concrete used for specific projects. Since asphalt holds up better long-term than concrete for highways and roads, that’s why it’s used more frequently.
When asphalt or concrete as road surfaces has issues, such as breaks, cracks or holes, this can cause a bumpy ride for those going to and fro. Everyone driving has eventually hit a pot hole. Most of the time, you might be startled but you make it away just fine. Every once in a while, especially in bad weather, if you hit a pot hole suddenly, you may do significant damage to your vehicle. This can lead to costly repairs and in some cases can total your car.
As a pedestrian, again in bad weather, if you don’t notice a hole or particularly bad crack, you may hurt yourself by spraining an ankle or other part of your foot. While this may not seem like such a big deal, if you’ve never tripped on concrete before, you don’t know how much you want to avoid this.
The road surface you drive or walk on matters because of the condition it is in. Not every city or state focuses on replacing asphalt or concrete as quickly as we’d like, so when you notice issues that are effecting your day-to-day life, you want to reach out to the city or state and report them. You’d be surprised at what this can do for getting repairs done quicker, especially when multiple people are reporting issues and incidents that have occurred.
