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

(e360.yale.edu)
472 points Brajeshwar | 2 comments | 10 Dec 25 15:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | 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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throwawaypath ◴[10 Dec 25 15:39 UTC] No.46218933[source]▶
How do EVs fare in this regard? Brakes are used significantly less, but the additional weight from the batteries chews through tires faster.
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kyleee ◴[10 Dec 25 15:40 UTC] No.46218960[source]▶
And unfortunately there is some nasty stuff in tires
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HPsquared ◴[10 Dec 25 15:52 UTC] No.46219166{3}[source]▶
There never seems to be much discussion on reducing the harm from tire (and I suppose road surface) particulates. Maybe that's the next frontier?
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ceejayoz ◴[10 Dec 25 16:46 UTC] No.46220004{4}[source]▶
There's quite a bit of materials science work in that direction.

For example, I have Michelin's CrossClimate tires, which are all-weather tires that do better in snow but don't break down as fast as dedicated winter tires do in warm weather.

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HPsquared ◴[10 Dec 25 19:50 UTC] No.46222738{5}[source]▶
I was thinking more from the perspective "make them out of materials that aren't too bad to inhale/ingest"
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1. mrguyorama ◴[10 Dec 25 20:45 UTC] No.46223555{6}[source]▶
What material is strong, malleable, dirt fucking cheap, has a high coefficient of friction, easy to work with, amenable to additives, meets all the suspension properties we expect out of a tire, etc, and isn't bad to breathe a lot of the dust of?

Modern tires are works of material science miracle, working with dirt cheap inputs.

Even iron dust from steel on steel friction like with trains is bad for your health.

The human lungs just have bad filtration.

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2. HPsquared ◴[10 Dec 25 22:13 UTC] No.46224660[source]▶
If nobody asks the question, nobody will try and look for one.