Citation

Vaiskunaite R, Laurinavicius A, Miskinis D. Balt. J. Road Bridge Eng. 2009; 4(4): 203-211.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Publisher Technika)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article reports on a study undertaken to evaluate and possibly reduce the negative impact of studded tires on the environment, i.e. emissions of fine (PM2.5) and coarse (PM10) particulate matter and noise. The authors were elucidating data to help decide if the use of studded tires should be allowed or prohibited, particularly in countries belonging to the northern latitudes of the Earth‘s hemisphere where in winter months the air temperature drops below 0 °C, i.e. Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland), east and middle Europe (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, etc.), and also the United States, Japan, Canada and Russia. Based on the scientific investigations that the use of studded tires causes emissions of pollutants, especially of PM2.5 and PM10 into the ambient air several tens of times higher than by the use of non-studded tires and generates the increase in the noise emissions up to several tens of times, the authors recommend that the use of studded tires should not be obligatory. Thus, in “mild” Lithuanian winters when the air temperature often varies around 0 degrees Celcius, the use of studded tires when traveling icy and more rarely cleaned roads of Lithuania should be only a recommendation, not a requirement. This is appropriate because the ice layer of the road pavement is effectively surmounted by the new generation winter tires, manufactured from a more soft rubber mixture, and containing the chemical element silicon.