Although plastic particles in the air are increasingly coming into focus, knowledge about their distribution and effects is still limited. Chemical analyses from Leipzig now provide details from Germany for the first time: Around 4% of the particulate matter consists of plastic. Around two-thirds of this comes from tire abrasion.
We need trains so bad
While I agree with you, particularly in urban areas where it’s easy for transit to make sense, I do still think we need solutions for people not living near cities too. Makes me wonder if there’s any tire technology out there to be developed that would either shed a lot less plastic, or maybe not even contain plastics.
Inb4 “lighter cars” or “just walk”, yeah I know, and I already drive a wagon rather than an SUV, to min/max size versus practicality, and I usually try to walk to town unless I need to carry something heavy or the weather is particularly shit, but there’s a ton of times where I need to go on a long drive, sometimes through multiple urban areas (that now get polluted with my microplastics), and public transit offers me no solution, or the solution is to at least double or triple the time taken by my already long drive. I’m eventually moving from diesel to electric to cut down on my exhaust pollution, but I’d also like there to be something that people like myself can do about the microplastics. Not because I think me alone doing something would change something, but because once something exists, it can be mandated by the EU or local governments.
Fewer cars, more green-space in the countryside, so not a huge worry. Cities should really focus on public transit; it fixes so many problems, no more drinking and driving, freeway congestion, traffic accidents, cost of owning car.