Who Pays for Roads?

Proposed to Christopher Newfield <chris.newfield@isrf.org>

You may have noticed that many roads in Cambridge are not in good repair. How are decisions made, on the mathematical relationship between the weight of a car or lorry and how much it wears the road surface, the seasonal and climate factors in repairing potholes, the cost of treating an undergraduate cyclist for a broken arm in A&E, or the economic impact of a change to their final degree class? Heterodox economic modelling is a strategy for considering all the relevant factors, rather than being driven by culture wars that distract political debate from the reality of physics. Your task is to create a model that can be used to plan road network changes in a way that optimises all social factors, not just the result of the next general election.