Stockholm to ban petrol and diesel cars from centre from 2025
Scheme goes further than most, as Swedish city tries to reduce pollution and noise
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Not that I love ICE cars or anything but isn't the big health impact from heavy vehicles like delivery trucks and, more importantly, from the rubber particles caused by car tires? A problem that in general worsens with BEVs since they're, on average, heavier? I'm sure smell will improve significantly, but breathing tire and road dust is the main health concern as I've understood it. Most other pollutants get rather effectively caught in the catalytic converter, aside from CO2 but that isn't unhealthy per se. CO in small doses out doors also isn't a big issue. NOx bad for nature but likely of low harm to humans. Etc. Someone please correct me if I'm misinformed.
There are many issues with ICE cars, and it wouldn't surprise if one of the main motivations behind the ban is to lessen dependence on fossil fuels.
This is a fairly low risk step to see if deliveries and short range transport will switch into EV. It also lowers a lot of air pollution and noise, it looks suitably progressive and is easily reversible if shit goes wrong.
For sure, good optics even though I argue that this basically means poorer people aren't allowed to drive in the city only people rich enough to buy the right via a (relatively) expensive BEV. Sure the Renault Zoey exist and similar but on the whole BEVs are significantly more expensive.
As for noise this might be true at the low speeds of the city center but keep in mind that on high ways BEVs make more noise than ICE vehicles due to the aforementioned increased mass, on average. High speeds it's tyre friction and air friction which is the noise driver and not engine sounds.
Good thing this is for a dozen city blocks at the center of an organically grown city then.
Walkable in about 15 minutes, and no highways.
and no highways.
Well, the E4 years through parts of the city like a sad scar in Essingeleden, so that's not quite true.
Unless you're talking about the zone where ICE cars will be banned, in which case - yes indeed. I believe one of the exits of Klaratunneln is located inside the zone, but that's not quite a highway, just highway-adjecent.
I think your concerns are valid, but on the whole electric vehicles have the potential to improve more than ICE vehicles https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/electric-cars/running/do-electric-vehicles-produce-more-tyre-and-brake-pollution-than-petrol-and/
The extra mass of current EVs probably (note I don't know for sure) doesn't cancel out their other benefits, and as battery tech (and tyre tech I guess) improves they'll get better.
Sure, I'm not saying they're somehow worse than ICE vehicles, they're demonstrably not. But particulate matter is the big health issue and not gases, and more and more studies is highlighting that tires are very big on particulate matter. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/23/health-impact-tyre-particles-increasing-concern-air-pollution
Note that all these studies are VERY recent considering how long we've been running vehicles with rubber based tyres. I also strongly dislike how the report you linked only focused in properly on brakes, which I know full well are vastly superior on hybrid and BEVs due to regenerative breaking and the restarted use of drum-style breaks. And more or less dismisses the tyre aspect, which is extremely irresponsible in my opinion. Granted though that it's arguing from a "Are BEVs worse than ICE vehicles?" so I can excuse some of it.
Completely agree with you, it's a problem and it'll get worse until there's new regulation on it, but hey at least the cities will be quieter as we cough up rubber and dust.
I think the issue might be visibility.
Naively, it feels like most of the issue is from a small number of extra sooty vehicles. But that belief is probably just because of how visible it is. The brake/Tyree dust isn’t visible because it is more spread out.
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