Oliver Gill, Chief Business Correspondent 30 May 2022
Particulates generated by tyre wear are more dangerous to public health than diesel exhaust fumes, a Government expert claims
quality in cities, the Government’s top clear air adviser has claimed.
The chairman of the Government’s independent science advisory group on air pollution said charges for low-emission zones are likely to be replaced with alternative levies as drivers switch to electric vehicles.
Particles from tyre wear are more dangerous to public health than diesel exhaust fumes, Professor Alastair Lewis said.
Known as “particulate matter (PM) 2.5”, the amount of air pollution is growing because motorists are driving ever larger vehicles with more substantial tyres.
Going Dutch? Why the British monarchy will have to modernise – ft.com
Simon Kuper
In the Netherlands, the Oranjes present themselves as a fairly ordinary if super-rich family that happens to have a crown
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands on their bikes during a visit to Friesland in 2020 © Getty Images
In the undying scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, King Arthur is pretending to ride through the British countryside. (He isn’t actually on a horse.) Spotting a peasant, he cries out “Old woman!” “Man!” corrects the peasant, and an argument ensues. When an actual female peasant (played by the male Python Terry Jones) crawls up through the mud, she’s even more combative: “Who does he think he is? Hey?”
Car tyres produce vastly more particle pollution than exhausts, tests show | Pollution | The Guardian
Almost 2,000 times more particle pollution is produced by tyre wear than is pumped out of the exhausts of modern cars, tests have shown.
The tyre particles pollute air, water and soil and contain a wide range of toxic organic compounds, including known carcinogens, the analysts say, suggesting tyre pollution could rapidly become a major issue for regulators.
Air pollution causes millions of early deaths a year globally. The requirement for better filters has meant particle emissions from tailpipes in developed countries are now much lower in new cars, with those in Europe far below the legal limit. However, the increasing weight of cars means more particles are being thrown off by tyres as they wear on the road.
The tests also revealed that tyres produce more than 1tn ultrafine particles for each kilometre driven, meaning particles smaller than 23 nanometres. These are also emitted from exhausts and are of special concern to health, as their size means they can enter organs via the bloodstream. Particles below 23nm are hard to measure and are not currently regulated in either the EU or US.
Cycling UK launches bikepacking tour of Kent: 145-mile cycle route – cyclingindustry.news
26 May, 2022 Simon Cox
Cycling UK today launched its fifth route: The Cantii Way, a 145-mile (234km) bikepacking tour of Kent, starting in the village of Wye, near Ashford, as part of the charity’s EXPERIENCE project.
The route is promoted as the perfect introduction to multi-day bikepacking and cycle touring, so can be ridden in one go over 3 to 4 days. Alternatively it can be split up over several weekends as it is has regular train stations along its length.
The route GPX file is freely available https://www.cyclinguk.org/webform/cantii-way-download-gpx-file helping people access the route, and appreciate the opportunities along its length.
“It’s the most polluting form of car that you can have.” @AyoCaesar defends @GeorgeMonbiot ’s support fo TE- novaramedia
“It’s the most polluting form of car that you can have.”
@AyoCaesar defends @GeorgeMonbiot’s support of SUV tyre deflating as
You’ve let the planet down, so we’re letting your tyres down – thetimes.co.uk
Nicholas Hellen, Transport Editor Saturday June 04 2022 Sunday Times
A young man in a mask crouches down by the back wheel of a Mercedes G-class, fiddles with the valve, inserts a single dried bean into the cap and pushes down. A few seconds later, as the air hisses out, he is walking nonchalantly away from the scene.
He is one of a new breed of activists, calling themselves the Tyre Extinguishers, who are taking on climate change one mung bean at a time.
The G-class, or G-Wagon, which is 6ft 5in high, weighs 2½ tons and does only 26 miles to the gallon of diesel, is the brashest of SUVs. Even here, at midnight in Hampstead, where the streets are thick with Range Rovers, Land Rover Discoverys, Audi Q8s and BMW X5s, it is a trophy for those bent on making it socially unacceptable to own these vehicles in urban areas.
The campaigners say SUVs are a “disaster” for our climate and the second-largest cause of the global rise in carbon dioxide emissions in the past decade. This broad category accounts for more than 40 per cent of Britain’s car sales, even though very few of the people who drive them do so off road.
Europe: Free public transport gains traction | Europe | News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 05.06.2022
In a bid to reduce global warming and offset rising fuel costs, an increasing number of European countries, cities and regions are making public transport free.
For years, experts and politicians have called for major changes in the transportation sector. While much of the motivation to foster public transport systems largely stemmed from a desire to curb climate change, the war in Ukraine has provided another reason: Using trains, trams and buses, rather than cars, Europeans would reduce their fuel consumption and thus the continent’s dependence on Russian energy imports.
Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, introduced a heavily discounted monthly transportation pass, letting people in Germany ride regional public transport for €9(about $9.65) per month in June, July and August. Lawmakers said they hope the pass will save people some money and encourage them to use public transport rather than drive cars.
The cheap, green, low-tech solution for the world’s megacities – ft.com
Simon Kuper – Poorer megacities tend to be designed for rich people who can afford cars. Bikes are the answer
In a stunning photograph from Shanghai in 1991, clusters of cycling commuters stream across a bridge. The only motorised vehicles to be seen are two buses. That was China in the 1990s: a “Bicycle Kingdom” where 670 million people owned pushbikes. Chinese rulers were then still following the lead of Deng Xiaoping, who defined prosperity as a “Flying Pigeon bicycle in every household”.
Today China is the kingdom of eight-lane highways. Most lower- and middle-income megacities around the world have ditched the bike. But they now need to reclaim it. Modern “megacities” (defined as places with at least 10 million inhabitants) are the biggest human settlements in history, and growing every day.
The world had ten megacities in 1990, 33 in 2018 and will have 43 by 2030, says the United Nations. Over a third of their population growth will be in India, China and Nigeria. More cars will mean more traffic jams and more damage to people, the planet and city life. Happily, it’s perfectly feasible for these places to become bicycle kingdoms again.
Why Do So Many Motorists Feel Persecuted When In Reality They Rule The World? – forbes.com
Carlton Reid
For some newspapers, the imposition of speeding fines is a “war on the motorist.” The latest front in this supposed war is led by a group not usually noted for radical anti-car tendencies.
According to the headline on a double-page spread in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph the “elite are determined to kill off the car.”
Folks from the elite tend to be Tesla and Lamborghini owners, so it’s a strange claim for the Telegraph to make. What is the newspaper basing its claim on and is the car really as endangered as the giant panda or the black Rhino?
The claim, it turns out, is based on “increasing insurance premiums, new city charging zones and pollution-busting road restrictions.”
What is a 20-minute neighbourhood? – sustrans.org.uk
Dr Cecilia Oram
There’s a lot of talk about 20-minute neighbourhoods in the UK right now. But what are they, and why are they so important for making safer, healthier places to live? Here’s everything you need to know.
Our goal for cities and towns is for them to be places that connect us to each other and what we need.
Centred around boosting quality of life for everyone.
We think that the best way to do this is to ensure that it is easy for people to meet most of their everyday needs by a short, convenient and pleasant 20-minute return walk.
10 minutes there, and 10 minutes back.