[peter5878]

The contribution of tire and brake pad wear is really quite low compared to other sources of air pollution.

From Evangeliou et al. (2020), Atmospheric transport is a major pathway of microplastics to remote regions, page 3:

"Surface concentrations of tire wear particles (TWPs) range between a few ng.m−3 and 20 ng.m−3 for PM2.5 and up to 50 ng.m−3 for PM10 (Supplementary Movie 1). Brake wear particle (BWP) surface concentrations reach 50 ng.m−3 at maximum (Supplementary Movie 1). The highest concentrations were calculated for eastern USA, Europe and South-eastern Asia. All concentrations (TWPs 0.4 μg.m−3 for PM2.5, 1.8 μg.m−3 for PM10; BWPs 0.8 μg.m−3 for PM2.5, 1.4 μg.m−3 for PM10) were far below air quality limits for PM (annual mean 10 μg.m−3 for PM2.5, double for PM10) and lower than typical black carbon (BC) concentrations in remote regions."

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17201-9

[stevenwoo]

You are correct but the particles from tires make a signficant contribution to pollution in the ocean! I neglected to separate that out from the GP's air pollution discussion. https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2019-10-02/califor...

[swsieber]

But the type of pollution does matter. An important question is does it have a greater impact. And given the studies linking health to distance from the freeway, I think that question needs further investigation.

[novok]

Electrics have less brake wear and probably more tire wear due to weight increases.