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In New York City, congestion pricing leads to marked drop in pollution

(e360.yale.edu)
472 points Brajeshwar | 1 comments | 10 Dec 25 15:25 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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lkbm ◴[10 Dec 25 15:34 UTC] No.46218856[source]▶
> Particulates issued from tailpipes can aggravate asthma and heart disease and increase the risk of lung cancer and heart attack. Globally, they are a leading risk factor for premature death.

Minor nitpick, but tailpipes aren't the primary source of emissions. The study is about PM2.5[0]. which will chiefly be tires and brake pads. Modern gasoline engines are relatively clean, outside of CO2, though diesel engines spit out a bunch of bad stuff.

[0] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44407-025-00037-2

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biophysboy ◴[10 Dec 25 15:44 UTC] No.46219022[source]▶
Is that true for slower moving vehicles? I can't imagine there's a lot of brake dust generated by stopping & starting in the 0-10 mph range.
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nabla9 ◴[10 Dec 25 16:06 UTC] No.46219404[source]▶
Tires and brakes. With EV's this gets relatively worse because they are heavier.
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ceejayoz ◴[10 Dec 25 16:11 UTC] No.46219512[source]▶
But the tires are individually controlled - less slippage - and the brakes are regenerative. As a bonus, NYC is pretty much best-case scenario for the latter.
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Aurornis ◴[10 Dec 25 16:21 UTC] No.46219654{3}[source]▶
> But the tires are individually controlled - less slippage

Not relevant for normal driving. The tires aren’t spinning appreciably due to acceleration except in brief moments with aggressive driving.

EVs can actually have higher acceleration related tire wear because they weigh more and have more instant torque on demand.

A lot of consumer EVs have filtered throttle pedal inputs to reduce the torque spikes though.

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1. mikepurvis ◴[10 Dec 25 17:37 UTC] No.46220732{4}[source]▶
Not all tire wear is when skidding out. A car tire's contact patch is several inches wide (especially on trucks/SUVs where extra-wide tires are often used to give a more premium look), so any time that wheel is turning a corner, there's a portion of it at the outside and inside that's rotating at a different speed than the pavement beneath it is moving.

There's also the regular deformation of wheel just in the course of regular rotation, which is where the majority of highway wear dust comes from.