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Tire dust makes up the majority of ocean microplastics

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461–470 of 635 posts

Re: Tire dust makes up the majority of ocean microplastics

#461
post #166

Has anyone here ever lived near a freeway or even moderately busy road? I made the mistake of renting next to the freeway. Noise was perfectly tolerable, but I could not use my back porch, because after just a few weeks, everything had a fine coating of black dust. I could not keep my windows open in the summer. I was certainly breathing this vile shit the entire time I lived there. This doesn't surprise me in the le…

Local hoons like to make clouds of tire smoke doing burnouts, I think that would count. I haven't noticed coatings of black sediments though.

Re: Tire dust makes up the majority of ocean microplastics

#462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only real solution is mandating light and heavy rail. California was hit hard by the car companies that bought out the rail and got replaced it with roads. And now we have even more reason to use rail everywhere we can. Maybe after the nimby boomers die off, we can actually made things make sense.

If we wait for the Boomers to die off to start making change, things might gain traction by the time GenZ runs things. We really have to start now because the gears of change grind slowly and reluctantly.

GenZ and younger are the people doing burnouts down my street.

Re: Tire dust makes up the majority of ocean microplastics

#463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why so many people are cautious about "EVs to save us all", to put it mildly. We are so focused on climate change and greenhouse gases that we do not see a lot of other issues and may exacerbate some of them in the process of decarbonisation.

I wonder if heavy EVs cause more tire and brake dust.

Probably nearly no brake dust. EVs are notorious for using so little brakes that they just rust due to lack of use.

Re: Tire dust makes up the majority of ocean microplastics

#465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is not an inherent property of cars. It is only true because we invested all our transit dollars in highways. Cars are not inherently better and roads are not free. If we invest more in public transit we can reduce our need for cars.

> But this is not an inherent property of cars. It is only true because we invested all our transit dollars in highways. Cars are not inherently better and roads are not free. If we invest more in public transit we can reduce our need for cars. Personal modes of transport like cars and bicycles give you more degrees of freedom compared to public/shared modes with respect to: a) space (can go to more places point to p…

Maybe this is true but I’m not convinced “more degrees of freedom” is a useful metric here. It’s not as simple as three bullet points - there is an entire infrastructure that must be built up around cars and that infrastructure has serious problems of cost and land use.

But if you like bullet points, cars are:

a) expensive to operate

b) dangerous to pedestrians

c) more polluting than trains or bicycles

Now I don’t actually think this form of argument is comprehensive but you see that we can easily pull out pluses and negatives without taking a holistic view.

Re: Tire dust makes up the majority of ocean microplastics

#467
post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently had the pleasure to vacation on a car-free island (few thousand inhabitants including tourists). Only motorized vehicles allowed are a handfull small electric transporters for logistics (and construction vehicles, ambulance). Turns out the space gained from lack of car infrastructure increases space efficiency by a lot (not that that wasn't obvious from theory). It really was bliss and it makes me despise…

It's always this circular logic where "I need my car because the supermarket is an hour walk" but the supermarket is an hour walk because everyone drives. It's mind boggling how much resources get poured in to cars and car infrastructure only to provide a slower, inefficient, more expensive, and toxic system. Feels like the next generation is seeing this now and things are slowly starting to change in some countries.…

> It's always this circular logic where "I need my car because the supermarket is an hour walk" but the supermarket is an hour walk because everyone drives.

If there’s no roads and vehicles, how does the food get to the supermarket?

Re: Tire dust makes up the majority of ocean microplastics

#468
post #385
post #166

Has anyone here ever lived near a freeway or even moderately busy road? I made the mistake of renting next to the freeway. Noise was perfectly tolerable, but I could not use my back porch, because after just a few weeks, everything had a fine coating of black dust. I could not keep my windows open in the summer. I was certainly breathing this vile shit the entire time I lived there. This doesn't surprise me in the le…

I recently had the pleasure to vacation on a car-free island (few thousand inhabitants including tourists). Only motorized vehicles allowed are a handfull small electric transporters for logistics (and construction vehicles, ambulance). Turns out the space gained from lack of car infrastructure increases space efficiency by a lot (not that that wasn't obvious from theory). It really was bliss and it makes me despise…

That paradise is unsustainable without mechanized agriculture and industry and a way to transport people and goods to those work sites. People aren't going to give up the conveniences of modernity for higher principles when they can't afford to.

Re: Tire dust makes up the majority of ocean microplastics

#469
post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's always this circular logic where "I need my car because the supermarket is an hour walk" but the supermarket is an hour walk because everyone drives. It's mind boggling how much resources get poured in to cars and car infrastructure only to provide a slower, inefficient, more expensive, and toxic system. Feels like the next generation is seeing this now and things are slowly starting to change in some countries.…

> It's always this circular logic where "I need my car because the supermarket is an hour walk" but the supermarket is an hour walk because everyone drives. If there’s no roads and vehicles, how does the food get to the supermarket?

You can still have light roadways, people walking on them mixed with bikes and electric scooters, small electric cars, etc.

You can still stock supermarkets, etc, with larger vehicles that only run once a day or every few days depending on demand, etc.

It's common in places other than the US with it's hyper car centric development to have more walkable spaces.

Re: Tire dust makes up the majority of ocean microplastics

#470
post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's always this circular logic where "I need my car because the supermarket is an hour walk" but the supermarket is an hour walk because everyone drives. It's mind boggling how much resources get poured in to cars and car infrastructure only to provide a slower, inefficient, more expensive, and toxic system. Feels like the next generation is seeing this now and things are slowly starting to change in some countries.…

> It's always this circular logic where "I need my car because the supermarket is an hour walk" but the supermarket is an hour walk because everyone drives. If there’s no roads and vehicles, how does the food get to the supermarket?

There's a huge gap between "literally no roads or vehicles of any kind" and "I have to use my car to get anywhere".

These bad faith arguments are tiring.

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