Admittedly 7,000 miles were on the front wheel but I could get another 3K if I wanted to stay with 35c.

https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/electric-vehicles/ev-tires-wear-down-fast-and-thats-a-pollution-problem

Time to pass a rubber tax.

Pre ride invention of the day:

Traction only when you need it

Use a really hard low wear rubber on alternating lugs in the tread. The tire rides on these most of the time even mild braking. The remaining lugs are softer high wear rubber and are generally retracted. The traction rubber is deployed by rain conditions and an accelerometer on hard braking. When the acceleration or deceleration reaches a limit compressed air would inflate a bladder inside the tire to press against the extensions of the regular rubber inside of the tire.

I personally don't know how to do the bladder compressed air part but it may be possible. The EU and US patent offices both have first to file.

QUOTE: As gas-guzzling cars are replaced by their electric counterparts, tailpipe emissions are on the decline. But cars have other negative impacts on environmental health beyond what comes out of their exhaust pipes. One of the bigger, albeit lesser-known, problems is tire pollution — or ​“tire and road-wear particles,” in industry terminology. ENDS

In the UK, zero tailpipe emission cars pay zero Vehicle Excise Duty (Car tax) to the state. So these vehicles still pollute and wear out the roads and yet their owners pay nothing in vehicle tax. This loophole needs looking into.

Simon Mason <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:

> In the UK, zero tailpipe emission cars pay zero Vehicle Excise Duty (Car
> tax) to the state.

The Exported-Pollution Vehicle (EV) rate of duty won’t remain at zero, the
government-de-jure will be losing too much money. Stand by for a road-use
tax.

> So these vehicles still pollute and wear out the roads and yet their
> owners pay nothing in vehicle tax. This loophole needs looking into.

It’s probably already been modelled by the Treasury computers.

--
Spike

On 07/10/2023 10:11 pm, Spike wrote:

> Simon Mason <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> In the UK, zero tailpipe emission cars pay zero Vehicle Excise Duty (Car
>> tax) to the state.
>
> The Exported-Pollution Vehicle (EV) rate of duty won’t remain at zero, the
> government-de-jure will be losing too much money. Stand by for a road-use
> tax.

Or, as we know it, a Road Tax.

>> So these vehicles still pollute and wear out the roads and yet their
>> owners pay nothing in vehicle tax. This loophole needs looking into.

May Sun: How does a zero-emission vehicle "pollute"?

[Other than by tyre material shedding, that is, which also applies to
chav-bikes like yours - unless your chav-bike's tyres never wear out).]
>
> It’s probably already been modelled by the Treasury computers.

You can guarantee that.

Scientists are “increasingly concerned” by the health impact of air pollution produced by the wear of vehicle tyres. The particles are especially damaging due to the toxic chemicals they are made from, say the scientists from Imperial College London.

The warning follows UK government data that shows significantly more tiny pollution particles now come from tyre erosion than are emitted from vehicle exhausts.

The report estimates 52% of all the small particle pollution from road transport came from tyre and brake wear in 2021, plus a further 24% from abrasion of roads and their paint markings. Just 15% of the emissions came from the exhausts of cars and a further 10% from the exhausts of vans and HGVs.

However, trials of new types of tyres sponsored by Transport for London (TfL) found they could result in up to 35% less emissions. The EU is also due to regulate tyre emissions in a world first, with new standards due to be in force by mid-2025.

Exhaust emissions from UK vehicles have fallen by 90% since 1996, according to the government data, owing to stricter standards being enforced. As a result, the particles from tyres, brakes and roads have become the main cause of pollution from traffic, presenting a new frontier in efforts to reduce levels of dirty air.

Small particles separate from tyres as cars travel, become airborne and can be inhaled deep into the lungs. Air pollution causes 26,000 to 38,000 early deaths a year in England and particle pollution has been linked to a wide range of diseases. Larger particles of tyre wear are washed or blown into rivers and seas and are a significant component of the plastic pollution that has contaminated both people’s bodies and the planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans.

The Imperial College London report says 6m tonnes of tyre wear particles are released globally each year. In London alone, it says, 2.6m vehicles emit about 9,000 tonnes of particles annually.

The particles may contain toxic chemicals including polyaromatic hydrocarbons and benzothiazoles, and heavy metals such as zinc and lead, the scientists said. But research on tyre wear and its effects had been neglected compared with work on fuel emissions, they said.

“Tyre wear particles pollute the environment, the air we breathe, and the water run-off from roads,” said Dr Zhengchu Tan, at Imperial’s department of mechanical engineering. “Even if all our vehicles eventually become powered by electricity instead of fossil fuels, we will still have harmful pollution from vehicles because of tyre wear.”

Prof Terry Tetley, at Imperial’s National Heart and Lung Institute, said: “We are growing increasingly concerned by the impact of tyre wear on human health. Simply walking on the pavement could expose us to this type of pollution. It is essential that we better understand the effect of these particles on our health.”

The Imperial team urged policymakers and scientists to embark on ambitious research on tyre wear, including solutions such as better tyres, devices that could capture particles and ways to incentivise public transport, cycling and walking. They also called for tighter limits on the harmful chemicals used in tyres.

Tests reported in June found that in the most modern cars, almost 2,000 times more particle pollution could be produced by tyre wear than was pumped out of their exhausts. A specific chemical used in tyres has been linked to salmon deaths in the US, and California has proposed a ban.

A new type of tyre, designed by the startup company Enso specifically for electric vehicles (EVs) and to produce less tyre wear, was tested recently in a six-month trial sponsored by TfL and using dozens of vans operated by Royal Mail and the delivery company DPD.

The results showed that Enso’s tyres produced less tyre pollution and were more energy efficient than budget range tyres, meaning greater range per battery charge. They were also equal to or better than premium tyres, and the company said they would cost 10% less.

Rikesh Shah, of TfL, said: “We’re pleased to see this promising new data and are excited to see how the market responds.”

Enso’s chief executive, Gunnlaugur Erlendsson, said Enso’s tyres wore more slowly because they used higher grade materials and were designed specifically for electric vehicles, which can be heavier and apply higher torque to the wheels. He said they would cost less as the company planned to sell them directly to drivers, rather than via garages. The UK government is an investor in the company, which has raised £5m to date.

“We don’t want to have EVs on the roads in the future and still be suffering from air pollution,” said Erlendsson. “We want to enable EVs to be better – more range, less pollution.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: “Across government, we are conducting research and supporting the development of international legislation to better understand the scale and impacts of non-exhaust emissions, including automobile tyre and brake wear.”

JNugent <jnugent@mail.com> wrote:

>> The Exported-Pollution Vehicle (EV) rate of duty won’t remain at zero, the
>> government-de-jure will be losing too much money. Stand by for a road-use
>> tax.
>
> Or, as we know it, a Road Tax.

:-)

>>> So these vehicles still pollute and wear out the roads and yet their
>>> owners pay nothing in vehicle tax. This loophole needs looking into.
>
> May Sun: How does a zero-emission vehicle "pollute"?
>
> [Other than by tyre material shedding, that is, which also applies to
> chav-bikes like yours - unless your chav-bike's tyres never wear out).]

>> It’s probably already been modelled by the Treasury computers.

> You can guarantee that.

I was breaking the news gently…

--
Spike

Simon Mason <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:

> The report estimates 52% of all the small particle pollution from road
> transport came from tyre and brake wear in 2021, plus a further 24% from
> abrasion of roads and their paint markings. Just 15% of the emissions
> came from the exhausts of cars and a further 10% from the exhausts of vans and HGVs.

> Exhaust emissions from UK vehicles have fallen by 90% since 1996,
> according to the government data, owing to stricter standards being
> enforced. As a result, the particles from tyres, brakes and roads have
> become the main cause of pollution from traffic, presenting a new
> frontier in efforts to reduce levels of dirty air.

So, let me get this right…

Vehicle emissions have fallen to 10% of their previous levels. Particle
emissions from other road sources are now the main cause of such pollution.

So where are the improvements in health, especially lung health, over that
time?

They will be hard to find, because as the Marxists seek to break down
society in order to rebuild it in their image, using the attack on this
form of the hated personal freedom, they have ignored pollution in the
home, which can be 8x that of outdoors. But any stick will do to beat a
dog.

> Small particles separate from tyres as cars travel, become airborne and
> can be inhaled deep into the lungs. Air pollution causes 26,000 to 38,000
> early deaths a year in England and particle pollution has been linked to
> a wide range of diseases.

But of course there is no estimate given of the number of early deaths due
to vehicle emissions, the question not being asked in case it might be too
small to be used emotively and also show how great other sources of
pollution could be.

--
Spike

Almost 2,000 times more particle pollution is produced by tyre wear than is pumped out of the exhausts of modern cars, tests have shown.

The tyre particles pollute air, water and soil and contain a wide range of toxic organic compounds, including known carcinogens, the analysts say, suggesting tyre pollution could rapidly become a major issue for regulators.

Air pollution causes millions of early deaths a year globally. The requirement for better filters has meant particle emissions from tailpipes in developed countries are now much lower in new cars, with those in Europe far below the legal limit. However, the increasing weight of cars means more particles are being thrown off by tyres as they wear on the road.

The tests also revealed that tyres produce more than 1tn ultrafine particles for each kilometre driven, meaning particles smaller than 23 nanometres. These are also emitted from exhausts and are of special concern to health, as their size means they can enter organs via the bloodstream. Particles below 23nm are hard to measure and are not currently regulated in either the EU or US.

“Tyres are rapidly eclipsing the tailpipe as a major source of emissions from vehicles,” said Nick Molden, at Emissions Analytics, the leading independent emissions testing company that did the research. “Tailpipes are now so clean for pollutants that, if you were starting out afresh, you wouldn’t even bother regulating them.”

Molden said an initial estimate of tyre particle emissions prompted the new work. “We came to a bewildering amount of material being released into the environment – 300,000 tonnes of tyre rubber in the UK and US, just from cars and vans every year.”

There are currently no regulations on the wear rate of tyres and little regulation on the chemicals they contain. Emissions Analytics has now determined the chemicals present in 250 different types of tyres, which are usually made from synthetic rubber, derived from crude oil. “There are hundreds and hundreds of chemicals, many of which are carcinogenic,” Molden said. “When you multiply it by the total wear rates, you get to some very staggering figures as to what’s being released.”

The wear rate of different tyre brands varied substantially and the toxic chemical content varied even more, he said, showing low-cost changes were feasible to cut their environmental impact.

“You could do a lot by eliminating the most toxic tyres,” he said. “It’s not about stopping people driving, or having to invent completely different new tyres. If you could eliminate the worst half, and maybe bring them in line with the best in class, you can make a massive difference. But at the moment, there’s no regulatory tool, there’s no surveillance.”

The tests of tyre wear were done on 14 different brands using a Mercedes C-Class driven normally on the road, with some tested over their full lifetime. High-precision scales measured the weight lost by the tyres and a sampling system that collects particles behind the tyres while driving assessed the mass, number and size of particles, down to 6nm. The real-world exhaust emissions were measured across four petrol SUVs, the most popular new cars today, using models from 2019 and 2020.

Used tyres produced 36 milligrams of particles each kilometre, 1,850 times higher than the 0.02 mg/km average from the exhausts. A very aggressive – though legal – driving style sent particle emissions soaring, to 5,760 mg/km.

Far more small particles are produced by the tyres than large ones. This means that while the vast majority of the particles by number are small enough to become airborne and contribute to air pollution, these represent only 11% of the particles by weight. Nonetheless, tyres still produce hundreds of times more airborne particles by weight than the exhausts.
Sign up to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am BST

The average weight of all cars has been increasing. But there has been particular debate over whether battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which are heavier than conventional cars and can have greater wheel torque, may lead to more tyre particles being produced. Molden said it would depend on driving style, with gentle EV drivers producing fewer particles than fossil-fuelled cars driven badly, though on average he expected slightly higher tyre particles from BEVs.

Dr James Tate, at the University of Leeds’ Institute for Transport Studies in the UK, said the tyre test results were credible. “But it is very important to note that BEVs are becoming lighter very fast,” he said. “By 2024-25 we expect BEVs and [fossil-fuelled] city cars will have comparable weights. Only high-end, large BEVs with high capacity batteries will weigh more.”

Other recent research has suggested tyre particles are a major source of the microplastics polluting the oceans. A specific chemical used in tyres has been linked to salmon deaths in the US and California proposed a ban this month.

“The US is more advanced in their thinking about [the impacts of tyre particles],” said Molden. “The European Union is behind the curve. Overall, it’s early days, but this could be a big issue.”

> Almost 2,000 times more particle pollution is produced by tyre wear than is pumped out of the exhausts of modern cars, tests have shown.
>
> The tyre particles pollute air, water and soil and contain a wide range of toxic organic compounds, including known carcinogens, the analysts say, suggesting tyre pollution could rapidly become a major issue for regulators.
>
> Air pollution causes millions of early deaths a year globally. The requirement for better filters has meant particle emissions from tailpipes in developed countries are now much lower in new cars, with those in Europe far below the legal limit. However, the increasing weight of cars means more particles are being thrown off by tyres as they wear on the road.
>
> The tests also revealed that tyres produce more than 1tn ultrafine particles for each kilometre driven, meaning particles smaller than 23 nanometres.. These are also emitted from exhausts and are of special concern to health, as their size means they can enter organs via the bloodstream. Particles below 23nm are hard to measure and are not currently regulated in either the EU or US.
>
> “Tyres are rapidly eclipsing the tailpipe as a major source of emissions from vehicles,” said Nick Molden, at Emissions Analytics, the leading independent emissions testing company that did the research. “Tailpipes are now so clean for pollutants that, if you were starting out afresh, you wouldn’t even bother regulating them.”
>
> Molden said an initial estimate of tyre particle emissions prompted the new work. “We came to a bewildering amount of material being released into the environment – 300,000 tonnes of tyre rubber in the UK and US, just from cars and vans every year.”
>
> There are currently no regulations on the wear rate of tyres and little regulation on the chemicals they contain. Emissions Analytics has now determined the chemicals present in 250 different types of tyres, which are usually made from synthetic rubber, derived from crude oil. “There are hundreds and hundreds of chemicals, many of which are carcinogenic,” Molden said. “When you multiply it by the total wear rates, you get to some very staggering figures as to what’s being released.”
>
> The wear rate of different tyre brands varied substantially and the toxic chemical content varied even more, he said, showing low-cost changes were feasible to cut their environmental impact.
>
> “You could do a lot by eliminating the most toxic tyres,” he said. “It’s not about stopping people driving, or having to invent completely different new tyres. If you could eliminate the worst half, and maybe bring them in line with the best in class, you can make a massive difference. But at the moment, there’s no regulatory tool, there’s no surveillance.”
>
> The tests of tyre wear were done on 14 different brands using a Mercedes C-Class driven normally on the road, with some tested over their full lifetime. High-precision scales measured the weight lost by the tyres and a sampling system that collects particles behind the tyres while driving assessed the mass, number and size of particles, down to 6nm. The real-world exhaust emissions were measured across four petrol SUVs, the most popular new cars today, using models from 2019 and 2020.
>
> Used tyres produced 36 milligrams of particles each kilometre, 1,850 times higher than the 0.02 mg/km average from the exhausts. A very aggressive – though legal – driving style sent particle emissions soaring, to 5,760 mg/km.
>
> Far more small particles are produced by the tyres than large ones. This means that while the vast majority of the particles by number are small enough to become airborne and contribute to air pollution, these represent only 11% of the particles by weight. Nonetheless, tyres still produce hundreds of times more airborne particles by weight than the exhausts.
> Sign up to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am BST
>
> The average weight of all cars has been increasing. But there has been particular debate over whether battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which are heavier than conventional cars and can have greater wheel torque, may lead to more tyre particles being produced. Molden said it would depend on driving style, with gentle EV drivers producing fewer particles than fossil-fuelled cars driven badly, though on average he expected slightly higher tyre particles from BEVs.
>
> Dr James Tate, at the University of Leeds’ Institute for Transport Studies in the UK, said the tyre test results were credible. “But it is very important to note that BEVs are becoming lighter very fast,” he said. “By 2024-25 we expect BEVs and [fossil-fuelled] city cars will have comparable weights. Only high-end, large BEVs with high capacity batteries will weigh more.”
>
> Other recent research has suggested tyre particles are a major source of the microplastics polluting the oceans. A specific chemical used in tyres has been linked to salmon deaths in the US and California proposed a ban this month.
>
> “The US is more advanced in their thinking about [the impacts of tyre particles],” said Molden. “The European Union is behind the curve. Overall, it’s early days, but this could be a big issue.”

An additive leaches from tire particles into streams and kills salmon and probably other fish.

They cannot find a less toxic chemical.

> QUOTE: As gas-guzzling cars are replaced by their electric counterparts, tailpipe emissions are on the decline. But cars have other negative impacts on environmental health beyond what comes out of their exhaust pipes. One of the bigger, albeit lesser-known, problems is tire pollution — or ​“tire and road-wear particles,” in industry terminology. ENDS
>
> In the UK, zero tailpipe emission cars pay zero Vehicle Excise Duty (Car tax) to the state. So these vehicles still pollute and wear out the roads and yet their owners pay nothing in vehicle tax. This loophole needs looking into.

It would be good to get some numbers on average grams of rubber particles/mile. It's probably linear with vehicle weight with driving habits the most tricky factor.

For road bikes it may be < 1 milligram/mile.