How do tire tracks stay on the road for years?
In: Engineering
Roads don’t get scrubbed down all that often. Tire tracks or skid-marks get left by the friction of the road eating away rubber on a tire when the tire is either not rotating as fast as the car is going, or is rotating faster than the car is moving forward. In either event, there is the weight of a car applying downward force and the abrasiveness of asphalt (or concrete on some bridges) as forces applied to the rubber which causes it to come off of the tire and stick to the road.
Because of this, the rather passive cleansing of a rainstorm won’t just knock it away anymore than just standing in the rain will wash a barbecue sauce stain off the shirt you’re wearing.
But because these marks don’t impede the function of the road in any meaningful way, there’s no use spending money on getting them cleaned up, so they stay there.
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