Why tires — not tailpipes — are spewing more pollution from your cars
Why tires — not tailpipes — are spewing more pollution from your cars
Planning a summer road trip? What to know about two major sources of pollution coming from your car: tires and brakes.
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Tire rubber accounts for about 25-30% of all microplastic emmission on land. But we are talking about Q-tips and putting filters into washing machines, because the car lobby successfully stirred the discourse away from themselves.
@tryptaminev @mondoman712 How very true, not to mention the particulate air pollution which comes from vehicle tyres
@tryptaminev if we all switch to e-bikes, does this mitigate/remove the problem?
Pretty much. The tire abrasion is dependant on the weight and the speed of the vehicle. So unless your e-bike weighs multiple tons and reaches speeds of >100km/h, it will be much better than a car.
@squaresinger thanks. That’s what I figured. Maybe we can go back to cars with 1920s weight, speed and tire size
Kinda, yeah, that would help. A Ford Model T had 540-750kg weight, and a top speed of 67km/h. That's significantly lower than modern cars.
But a Ford Model A from 1928 already had 954-1144kg and was able to reach 104km/h, which is not too far off from the regular operating values of a small modern car.
If you'd use modern materials and engines, it wouldn't be hard to make a 500kg empty mass car with a top speed of 50-70km/h that fits 5 people, uses hardly any energy to move it and has very little tire abrasion.
If there were no heavy and dangerous cars around that you need to be protected from, something like an electric autorickshaw would be a perfectly adequate city vehicle.
@tryptaminev and that no matter what motor they carry 😬 #microplastic #tires https://phys.org/news/2022-11-unraveling-secrets-microplastics.html @mondoman712
It's probably even worse with EV-s since they're heavier than ICE cars of similar class/size.
@Shurimal urgh yes that definitely sounds worse :/ @mondoman712 @tryptaminev