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Comment by merek | Hacker News Reader

> It turns out that BEVs (battery electric vehicles) reduce the amount of brake dust by 83%, according to a new analysis by EIT Urban Mobility (a body of the European Union) and Transport for London. The study looked primarily at London, Milan and Barcelona.

> The primary reason for this is the use of regenerative braking, meaning that electric vehicles can slow down without rubbing friction brakes. Other vehicles that use regenerative braking reduced brake emissions too, with Hybrids reducing them by 10-48%, and PHEVs by 66%.

Technically not cleaning the air as the title says, but still a major improvement.

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Cars clean the air because the AC filters capture particles

I clean the air because my lungs capture car particles.

That's why I have an e-bike, so I breathe less when cycling/commuting into the city.

There was a study [0] in Paris that demonstrates a signifiant positive benefit/risk ration of bicycling even in polluted air: the effect on physical and psychic health benefits largely outweighs (sometimes to x30) the risk of accidents and pollution disease.

[0] (2012, french) https://www.ors-idf.org/nos-travaux/publications/les-benefic...

My city attempts to promote cycling, but hasn't bothered to first take care of the problem with people heating their homes with solid fuels like coal dust and whatnot.

It's frustrating, because cycling during the heating season is not only unpleasant, but also unhealthy.

Technically we all disinfect the water through our kidneys too

Excluding those recently punched hard in the kidneys.

Some diesel engines can clean the air, but only if the air coming in is very polluted. They'll catch and burn particulates, and they'll chemically scrub NOx. This only applies if the air outside is very polluted, though

Once again hybrids capture most of the benefit of electricity, and slide silently under the radar :(

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