while switching to electric vehicles likely reduces break dust, such switch would simultaneously increase dust from tires, since increased acceleration. The latter being already 80% of urban "particulate matter" pollution.
With the exception of tunnels, where heavy particles are constantly being churned up from the road surface and re-circulated into the air, tyre and brake wear is a relatively minor contributor to urban air pollution.
Why do you say that? Would love to know more, but all the research I've read lists them as significant contributors, second only to resuspension, each now exceeding tailpipe emissions on both PM 10 and PM 2.5.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S13522...
https://dot.ca.gov/-/media/dot-media/programs/research-innov...
As an aside, we'd probably agree that vehicle weight is the mediating factor across all of these sources, regardless of the ratios from one type to the other. Massive load hauling trucks are generating a disproportionate share of emissions of all types, this is not really about making sedans a little more efficient.
Here in London, some of the most obviously polluted and stinking roads are those where the traffic barely moves at all - lots of slow moving or idling vehicles. There isn't a great deal of brake or tyre wear when vehicles are standing still!
Huh, all the studies I've read and linked are comparing like with like within particle size categories. Idling considerations are addressed in the modeling too.
You seem fairly unshakable here, but the topic seems well researched and the results are pretty unambiguous to me.
If you're only counting the largest particles, then yes, a lot of them are going to come from tyres.
https://particleandfibretoxicology.biomedcentral.com/article...
In my experience, over braking is the greater problem. Front tires degrade more quickly than rears. The average driver brakes far harder than they accelerate.
I think the heavier EVs hit a crossover point because of regenerative braking, but weight does set them back, that's one of the whole points of this study:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S13522...
This is a curve though. We could almost simplify the problem and only look at what heavy trucks generate and ignore all the cars completely, it'd be a non-crazy approximation.