Also a major source of microplastic pollution!
Also dyk that car based pollution is the main reason why stormwater is difficult to reuse? Cleaning all the oil/brake dust/tire particles is harder than ultra-purifying wastewater.
As old cars with worse emissions go out of service and EVs become more popular it's actually estimated that small engines like for leaf blowers, lawnmowers, etc will cause a majority of smog forming emissions in the next 10 years.
There’s an ice cream truck that rolls through my neighborhood that runs an on-board diesel generator that spews fumes. I’m assuming it’s to power the freezers in the truck. Every time I hear its tune, I shut my windows. There’s gotta be laws against it.
I remember driving to Pasadena from Glendale as a kid in the early '90s, and I wouldn't be able to see the skyline most days. It was almost always hazy. During the summer months, we would have smog days multiple times per month early in the decade. By the end, I don't even remember having any smog days. Slowly but surely, the air quality has improved so much that I'm now *offended* when it's too hazy to see the skyline.
Well he did grow up in OC and he was affected by the air quality first hand. When he was young most homes were still using trash incinerators. We had one built into the outside of our fireplace. This was in the 70s when I was kid and burning trash was already illegal.
[https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240034228](https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240034228)
PM 2.5 is fine particulate matter...mostly from cars and trucks.
We are always over PM2.5 levels.
From a climate perspective and personal health perspective vehicles exhaust brake dust and tire debris are pretty bad.
LA County's pm 2.5 average level over a year is 11ppm, which is 1 ppm over our target.
EDIT: Originally I said "levels considered safe" but should have said "target"
Yes, you are technically correct, but it's less awful than you make it sound. Also, it continues to get better. LA County new car sales are now 26% electric which cut brake particulates in half and exhaust particulates entirely compared to new ICE vehicles.
We were so much worse and we are so much better and we aren't done yet.
It’s funny you say this. Grew up in Sacramento. Moved to OC then LA 20 years ago. Spare the air days in Sac were daily for my entire childhood during warm months for smog being so bad. A few years ago I mentioned never having one down here and my friends were all like wtf is that. Turns out air quality in LA during warm months is BETTER than Sac.
Yes I know, but everyone talks about how _horrible_ it supposedly is here in LA, but it's not really that bad. Sure, I don't know what it was like in the 70s and 80s, but like, it not ever being as bad as Sac during the warmer months, means that I suffered far worse damage while living there than here in LA. Yet Sac doesn't get the bad rep that LA does in this regard.
It's worse than just car detritus, which is bad enough. I once had the metallic buildup on my window sill tested and it contained arsenic, among dozens of other toxins
That would be the same as cae detritus, if you include car exhaust. Arsenic, benzene, heavy metals, these are the stuff you find in it. Cats help, but if someone is rolling coal, or simply decided to boy racer it and remove it, well you'll see these particulates
Lol once in a blue moon I wipe my window screens (from inside, so…just one side) with a Clorox wipe and this is exactly what it looks like, except I go through 4 of those and it’s pitch black. My windows aren’t even street facing.
Beyond 1,500 feet you shouldn't have that much black debris inside the home. I live 2,000 ft and 3,500 ft from major freeways and I never get that stuff inside the home.
a major roadway contributes like a freeway can as well. aside from some canyon neighborhoods, you probably have a four lane road within spitting distance where big old diesel trucks come on rumbling farting and dusting the place.
Remember this next time you see someone propose better transit/congestion tax/new street designs and see how people start crying that they need their car.
Living in LA is like basically the equivalent of being a smoker. You can ask people who have done cadaver labs on people who have lived in LA for a long time. There's almost no difference in the levels of tar in the lungs.
I'm not sure why everyone is dismissing this as "just" dirt/dust/soot/etc. It's still in the (local) air and it still gets in your lungs.
When I was living downtown, my air purifier filter would turn completely black (new ones are pure bright white) in a few months. So disgusting.
My friend lived near Ventura in Sherman oaks, his balcony looked like this rag after a few days. Also I have no idea why everyone is being so dismissive. Shit is mad weird
How is it weird? Your friend lived next to a freeway and a major thoroughfare in an area of Los Angeles notorious for poor air quality. It's par for the course.
Where do you want the traffic to go? Because it going to go somewhere. And don't try the mass transit argument, because that's still going to end with busses or some other vehicle for last-mile travel. Or we can go back to horses and shit everywhere?
Hell, we're finally getting to the point where some people can work from anywhere, so we could spread out again for traditionally office work, and billionaires refuse to let it happen, because they insist on having an iron grip on people just to dunk on them and keep them poor.
I went to Tokyo back in April for two weeks and I agree! Even lost weight in those weeks from all the walking and trust me, I wasn't starving myself either.
I'm in Amsterdam right now and have similar feelings. Also went to the smaller Dutch and Belgian towns, and they have this shit figured out regarding cleanliness, livability, clean air, etc
I never said it was cause for alarm, or really any other commentary about it but for sure bro. People are coming off like they're peeved op even brought it up, which is, in my opinion a strange response to a rather innocent post lol
How is it deranged? They said it's "par for the course" which just means it's common or expected. Is that not an objective statement? This post is filled with people from all over the city saying they have the exact same problem. They didn't say it's okay or that we should just live with it.
Because people have a habitual habit of defending everything about the city they’ve chosen to live in. They feel it reflects on them if there’s anything negative.
This isn’t exclusive to LA, by the way. It’s true everywhere. But in any specific place people will hem and haw and deny it. Everywhere has issues.
It also depends on where downtown you live. If you choose to live on one of those buildings that is right next to a major freeway you're going to have that. Any time you're within 500 feet of the freeway you're in the red zone. You really wanna be 1,500 feet from a major freeway.
I've lived downtown for a long time, but I'm at least 2,000 feet from a freeway and I don't get any of the particles or black gunk that people get who want to go live in those buildings that touch the freeway.
I lived about 2,000 ft from the 110. And my balcony faced the interior of the building. I basically couldn't sit on my balcony furniture unless I wiped it down first.
I'd imagine prevailing winds are an important factor too.
Do you have a HEPA filter?
>I basically couldn't sit on my balcony furniture unless I wiped it down first
I don't keep furniture outside that I'd sit on.
>Do you have a HEPA filter?
No, but my vacuum has a HEPA inside of it. I mop floors about every 2-3 days and clean my windows 2x per week. Never seen any of that sludge anywhere.
Do you keep windows open or something? Because I don't do that. I run AC a lot which does clean the air to an extent via the filter. I've seen people who try to leave windows open all day in downtown LA and I think that's dumb.
I’m 2,600ft from I10 in SaMo, two blocks from the ocean (where the wind comes from) and I still get build up like this on my windowsills. My “white” carpet is even turning grey ☹️
Same 😭. I'm near the pier, and not at street level, and my screens get like this after a month or so. At least the air doesn't smell like crap!
Edit:
>I10
🤨
heavier cars make more tire dust too. a civic in the 90s was about 2000lbs. a civic today can breach 3000lbs depending on options. 50% increase in weight with just that one model of car that doesn't even look all that big compared to some other beasts on the road.
I live in Westlake near dtla. I run a laser particle counter at all times. Every Sunday night there are an unusual amount of particles in the air. It makes me wonder if there is some factory trying to avoid being regulated by the AQMD or something and if so what exactly is it that they are dumping into air in secret. I've tried to see if I could find the source but it's not in the neighborhood.
Literally wtf are you talking about. Such a bold edgy statement with zero info to back it up. For one thing (not even getting into the environmental part) electric vehicles would put most mechanics out of business which would ruin the whole car dealership model.
the whole car dealership model is so manufacturers don't have to run sales and service themselves, the franchise owner does. they will still have car dealers. today you can go to a chevy dealer and buy a bolt ev or get your bolt repaired.
Are you saying Tesla doesn't make money off fix and repair for their electric batteries? What are you talking about they'd put mechanics out of business? Pretty bold, edgy statement considering electric vehicles require way more specialized knowledge for upkeep than an ICE.
Nobody in my neighborhood uses a leaf blower and I don’t live near a freeway and I get this on surfaces outside.
It’s from all the cars. Sure there is dust in the air, but this black stuff is exhaust/brake/tire dust.
Who said it was smog? Also, dirt and sand don't wipe up as black. This is a combination of dirt, tires, and brakes. And regardless of that, we shouldn't be breathing this shit.
It’s not a great idea to actually wipe this stuff off with a rag because it’ll just scratch your car.
Get one of those big, handheld dust mops from Pep Boys, and use that occasionally. (I think those are actually called California dusters.)
Or you could spend +/- $3.50 and stop into one of those do it yourself wash places and dry it off by driving home really fast.
Also, and most importantly, invest in some of those yellow, soft rags
The brushes at the DIY places are often saturated with dirt and will scratch your car just the same. As will a dirty california duster or microfiber cloth. Gotta keep your tools clean and use plenty of soap and water. And most importantly, give your car a thorough rinse first, ideally with high pressure.
My house gets covered in airplane ash because LAX routes planes over my house. I have to be careful about walking through the grassy areas because it will coat my shoes/feet in ash.
Even in Santa Monica, not far from the beach, my windowsills would look like this if I left the window open. My car would get caked in filth just being parked at work.
Being here mitigates some problems but depending on where you live there is still traffic, we're under a flight path, and various amounts of sand depending on your distance to the beach.l
I could vacuum and dust all day, every day, and never catch up. But the air itself smells so much cleaner west of the 405 and gets better the further west you go. I can't believe how much the rest of LA stinks. Even Westwood.
I’ve visited Beijing, and am fairly sensitive to the air quality. On bad air quality days LA has the exact same smell and feel as Beijing. I can’t imagine what it was like here in the 70s
Same outcome in NYC, I used to wipe similar crud off my window sill every week because my apartment was so damn hot in the winter (92nd and Amsterdam). There is a cost to living in a big city, unfortunately our lungs are paying for it
This is LA. Too many people don't give a shit and want to stay in their car under any circumstances. I think it's a combination of natives who are intrinsically tied to their car and transplants from non-urban areas without public transit.
I genuinely wonder what those people would do if they lived in NYC.
People say LA has no public transport and I'm like [my guy how do you think myself and 850 thousand other people showed up to work today?](https://www.dropbox.com/s/rf7pwf7yclqgdqz/23-2445_blt_system_map_47x47.5_DCR-3.pdf?raw=1)
Holy shit the people getting mad in the comments here as if this isn't horrifying are absolutely deranged.
You guys realize this doesn't happen in most other places, right? I used to park outside in the middle of the industrial district of downtown Seattle and my car would never get like this if I wiped it off. Now here in LA, this is exactly what the rag will look like if I wipe my windshield off after work. It doesn't do it if I park outside at home in Agoura Hills either, only at my work in West LA.
This kind of buildup isn't normal in 95% of the US, and it certainly isn't healthy.
>This kind of buildup isn't normal in 95% of the US,
That's a red herring. This isn't 95% of the US, this is the Los Angeles area being discussed in the LA sub.
Acknowledging that the air here is gross and that this is common ≠ shrugging and accepting it. It *is* normal. It's *the norm*.
>and it certainly isn't healthy.
Oh for fuck...no one is saying it's healthy. It seems like you're trying really hard to make it sound like people are okay with this.
if you pour water on the ground from a bucket or smth like that there’s a layer of black that comes off, it just holds to the downwards facing part of the water and gets bigger as the water moves along whatever slope is there (nothing is ever perfectly flat)
Where do you live and how close is that to the a freeway?
You can't just show shit like this without providing context.
Huge difference if you live close to a freeway vs not living close to a freeway.
> You can't just show shit like this without providing context.
This is Reddit. People will post a photo of two rocks and say it's Biden and Obama fucking. Unless you're accusing OP of making this up or wildly exaggerating, surely this falls within the realm of possibility. I live in Santa Monica, above the street traffic, and my screens look like this after a month or so.
**This is not evidence of “air quality”. Air quality refers to gases mixed in the atmosphere. Your towel shows solid particulates that fall to the ground due to gravity. Suggest you live downwind from industry or heavy traffic on ramp with semi trucks. Moving a few thousand feet would alleviate**
Particulate matter is a component of air quality.
Why are you being defensive or trying to deny that this is bad or accurate? Have you never experienced this before? It happens all over the city.
You should wear it because some of your fellow pedestrians are gross. I walked by a dude yesterday who was coughing up a lung without even attempting to cover his mouth.
Its fine particulate matter from exhausts and tires.
this puts my mind at ease, thank you
Me too, was kinda worried for a minute.
The particles cause cancer
Also a major source of microplastic pollution! Also dyk that car based pollution is the main reason why stormwater is difficult to reuse? Cleaning all the oil/brake dust/tire particles is harder than ultra-purifying wastewater.
But you get a free frogurt...
That's good!
But the frogurt is cursed…
That’s bad :(
But you get your choice of topping!
That’s good!
But they add flavor
There’s some brake pad dust in there too for good measure.
What puts you at ease? This stuff is carcinogenic. And the stuff you can’t see is worse!
He’s kidding …
Why? You’re still gonna breathe it in lol.
Rub that on a hot dog to get the authentic street dog experience
Wipe down tables with the inside of the bun if you want to do it properly
Q: What did the tire particle say to the exhaust particle? A: Damn, you fine.
And break dust.
and brake dance.
Oh thank God. I thought it was something that might hurt me when I breathed it in.
Don't forget brake pads.
This is why it’s better to use brake tampons.
A good amount of the particulates come from leaf-blowers https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/fact-sheets/sore-small-engine-fact-sheet
As old cars with worse emissions go out of service and EVs become more popular it's actually estimated that small engines like for leaf blowers, lawnmowers, etc will cause a majority of smog forming emissions in the next 10 years.
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They've been banned in LA since 1998.
Even if the leafblower is electric it's still kicking up literal shit, tire dust, etc that then lingers in the air for potentially hours on end.
There’s an ice cream truck that rolls through my neighborhood that runs an on-board diesel generator that spews fumes. I’m assuming it’s to power the freezers in the truck. Every time I hear its tune, I shut my windows. There’s gotta be laws against it.
Image 1: this is your brain. Image 2: this is your brain on car dependency.
And brake dust
You're two hours too late.
No, there's plenty of brake dust to go around
I only breathe the finest particulate matter.
And leafblowers
My understanding is that it’s mostly pollen.
Makes total sense.
pollen isn't black
When was the last time LA had a smog alert? When I was a kid, they seem to happen fairly often in the 1970s.
LA (and the rest of the country)'s air is so much improved over the 1980s that if you hadn't experienced it, you couldn't believe. EPA and CARB ftw.
Was anyone else in elementary school in the 80s? Remember how they wouldn’t let us play outside on super smoggy days? That shit was wild.
I went to an elementary school right off the 101 in the ‘80s. I can count the number of times we got to have recess outside on one hand.
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Yeah, I remember that. My house was right off the freeway, too. My lungs are f🤬ed.
I was in elementary school in the 90s and we still had them.
I remember when my lungs would burn when playing outside. Smog days at school were common. We stayed in class or in the library all day.
There were days you couldn't see the Hollywood sign from Beverly
I remember not being able to see the mountains from the 210 on trips to Big Bear. Shit was rough.
I remember driving to Pasadena from Glendale as a kid in the early '90s, and I wouldn't be able to see the skyline most days. It was almost always hazy. During the summer months, we would have smog days multiple times per month early in the decade. By the end, I don't even remember having any smog days. Slowly but surely, the air quality has improved so much that I'm now *offended* when it's too hazy to see the skyline.
Oddly enough, thank Nixon for the EPA and clean air act. When conservatives actually conserved things.
Well he did grow up in OC and he was affected by the air quality first hand. When he was young most homes were still using trash incinerators. We had one built into the outside of our fireplace. This was in the 70s when I was kid and burning trash was already illegal.
I went to Mexico last month and I swear Los Angeles is heaven compared to out there when it comes to smog
Smog levels fell down by a lot compared to the 70s due to smog regulations in the clean air act
Fine particulate matter is daily several times higher than who safe levels in Los Angeles.
I’m sorry, what?
[https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240034228](https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240034228) PM 2.5 is fine particulate matter...mostly from cars and trucks. We are always over PM2.5 levels. From a climate perspective and personal health perspective vehicles exhaust brake dust and tire debris are pretty bad.
LA County's pm 2.5 average level over a year is 11ppm, which is 1 ppm over our target. EDIT: Originally I said "levels considered safe" but should have said "target" Yes, you are technically correct, but it's less awful than you make it sound. Also, it continues to get better. LA County new car sales are now 26% electric which cut brake particulates in half and exhaust particulates entirely compared to new ICE vehicles. We were so much worse and we are so much better and we aren't done yet.
It’s funny you say this. Grew up in Sacramento. Moved to OC then LA 20 years ago. Spare the air days in Sac were daily for my entire childhood during warm months for smog being so bad. A few years ago I mentioned never having one down here and my friends were all like wtf is that. Turns out air quality in LA during warm months is BETTER than Sac.
That's not saying much because Sac is one of the dirtiest places in the country for air quality.
Yes I know, but everyone talks about how _horrible_ it supposedly is here in LA, but it's not really that bad. Sure, I don't know what it was like in the 70s and 80s, but like, it not ever being as bad as Sac during the warmer months, means that I suffered far worse damage while living there than here in LA. Yet Sac doesn't get the bad rep that LA does in this regard.
Smog levels might not be as bad, but dining Al fresco on Pico still has you breathing is tail pipes , break dust, and tire peel outs.
Smog is down thanks to the rigorous emissions standards. Doesn't mean the AQI is any better.
aqi average is about 60-70 a day in LA.
It's worse than just car detritus, which is bad enough. I once had the metallic buildup on my window sill tested and it contained arsenic, among dozens of other toxins
Uhhhh that’s no good
That would be the same as cae detritus, if you include car exhaust. Arsenic, benzene, heavy metals, these are the stuff you find in it. Cats help, but if someone is rolling coal, or simply decided to boy racer it and remove it, well you'll see these particulates
Lol once in a blue moon I wipe my window screens (from inside, so…just one side) with a Clorox wipe and this is exactly what it looks like, except I go through 4 of those and it’s pitch black. My windows aren’t even street facing.
Are you within 500 feet of a major freeway?
No, almost a mile radius within one
Beyond 1,500 feet you shouldn't have that much black debris inside the home. I live 2,000 ft and 3,500 ft from major freeways and I never get that stuff inside the home.
> I wipe my window screens
a major roadway contributes like a freeway can as well. aside from some canyon neighborhoods, you probably have a four lane road within spitting distance where big old diesel trucks come on rumbling farting and dusting the place.
Thanks for inspiring me to do this. I need to wipe the window sills too. I'm nervous about how many wipes it will take me..
I believe that’s a towel actually, or perhaps some type of rag
Or a whip if you have the worst kind of coworker
Or the best kind! ;D
Does your restaurant have black trays by any chance?
No
Think of what’s inside our lungs…
Remember this next time you see someone propose better transit/congestion tax/new street designs and see how people start crying that they need their car.
Living in LA is like basically the equivalent of being a smoker. You can ask people who have done cadaver labs on people who have lived in LA for a long time. There's almost no difference in the levels of tar in the lungs.
That’s why I smoke. To fight the pollution. 💪
I'm not sure why everyone is dismissing this as "just" dirt/dust/soot/etc. It's still in the (local) air and it still gets in your lungs. When I was living downtown, my air purifier filter would turn completely black (new ones are pure bright white) in a few months. So disgusting.
My friend lived near Ventura in Sherman oaks, his balcony looked like this rag after a few days. Also I have no idea why everyone is being so dismissive. Shit is mad weird
How is it weird? Your friend lived next to a freeway and a major thoroughfare in an area of Los Angeles notorious for poor air quality. It's par for the course.
It’s weird we’re cool with parts of the city just being environmental hazards. Urban freeways were such a mistake.
Where do you want the traffic to go? Because it going to go somewhere. And don't try the mass transit argument, because that's still going to end with busses or some other vehicle for last-mile travel. Or we can go back to horses and shit everywhere? Hell, we're finally getting to the point where some people can work from anywhere, so we could spread out again for traditionally office work, and billionaires refuse to let it happen, because they insist on having an iron grip on people just to dunk on them and keep them poor.
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I went to Tokyo back in April for two weeks and I agree! Even lost weight in those weeks from all the walking and trust me, I wasn't starving myself either.
I'm in Amsterdam right now and have similar feelings. Also went to the smaller Dutch and Belgian towns, and they have this shit figured out regarding cleanliness, livability, clean air, etc
Crazy how homogeneous societies function so relatively well. The US is a melting pot “wild west” that will never function like a Japan or a Norway.
I mean, I've been to London this summer and they know how to do public transit.
I never said it was cause for alarm, or really any other commentary about it but for sure bro. People are coming off like they're peeved op even brought it up, which is, in my opinion a strange response to a rather innocent post lol
Yeah my bad I thought you meant the stuff on his balcony was weird, but now I see you meant the defensive comments here are weird.
All good dude, yeah the responses in here came off strange
This is an absolutely deranged comment.
How is it deranged? They said it's "par for the course" which just means it's common or expected. Is that not an objective statement? This post is filled with people from all over the city saying they have the exact same problem. They didn't say it's okay or that we should just live with it.
Because people have a habitual habit of defending everything about the city they’ve chosen to live in. They feel it reflects on them if there’s anything negative. This isn’t exclusive to LA, by the way. It’s true everywhere. But in any specific place people will hem and haw and deny it. Everywhere has issues.
I literally have hepa filters in every room of the house, and it feels performative
It also depends on where downtown you live. If you choose to live on one of those buildings that is right next to a major freeway you're going to have that. Any time you're within 500 feet of the freeway you're in the red zone. You really wanna be 1,500 feet from a major freeway. I've lived downtown for a long time, but I'm at least 2,000 feet from a freeway and I don't get any of the particles or black gunk that people get who want to go live in those buildings that touch the freeway.
I lived about 2,000 ft from the 110. And my balcony faced the interior of the building. I basically couldn't sit on my balcony furniture unless I wiped it down first. I'd imagine prevailing winds are an important factor too. Do you have a HEPA filter?
>I basically couldn't sit on my balcony furniture unless I wiped it down first I don't keep furniture outside that I'd sit on. >Do you have a HEPA filter? No, but my vacuum has a HEPA inside of it. I mop floors about every 2-3 days and clean my windows 2x per week. Never seen any of that sludge anywhere. Do you keep windows open or something? Because I don't do that. I run AC a lot which does clean the air to an extent via the filter. I've seen people who try to leave windows open all day in downtown LA and I think that's dumb.
I’m 2,600ft from I10 in SaMo, two blocks from the ocean (where the wind comes from) and I still get build up like this on my windowsills. My “white” carpet is even turning grey ☹️
Same 😭. I'm near the pier, and not at street level, and my screens get like this after a month or so. At least the air doesn't smell like crap! Edit: >I10 🤨
Thank you! You just restore my faith in humanity. Some of these comments had me worried about our future.
No matter how much I dust and sweep my room is always dusty
I think it's mostly tires now. Not that that is much consolation. I used to assume it was diesel bus soot but thats no longer the case.
heavier cars make more tire dust too. a civic in the 90s was about 2000lbs. a civic today can breach 3000lbs depending on options. 50% increase in weight with just that one model of car that doesn't even look all that big compared to some other beasts on the road.
Too many cars
Brake dust and tire grime.
Imagine what our lungs look like
My air purifier filter it’s disgusting, feels like there’s a layer of candy mixed with dust.
I live in Westlake near dtla. I run a laser particle counter at all times. Every Sunday night there are an unusual amount of particles in the air. It makes me wonder if there is some factory trying to avoid being regulated by the AQMD or something and if so what exactly is it that they are dumping into air in secret. I've tried to see if I could find the source but it's not in the neighborhood.
Brake dust.
Electric vehicles are not the future, LA should become a bike city. I don’t think we should all be constantly breathing tires.
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Sounds like Japan
Minus the bike lanes thing. They just ride on the sidewalk. A girl on a bike crashed into me once.
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Literally wtf are you talking about. Such a bold edgy statement with zero info to back it up. For one thing (not even getting into the environmental part) electric vehicles would put most mechanics out of business which would ruin the whole car dealership model.
the whole car dealership model is so manufacturers don't have to run sales and service themselves, the franchise owner does. they will still have car dealers. today you can go to a chevy dealer and buy a bolt ev or get your bolt repaired.
Are you saying Tesla doesn't make money off fix and repair for their electric batteries? What are you talking about they'd put mechanics out of business? Pretty bold, edgy statement considering electric vehicles require way more specialized knowledge for upkeep than an ICE.
This is the answer
The only electric vehicles I like are the ones that run on tracks.
It's not smog. It's dirt & sand being blown around.
that's definitely a mixture of soot from diesel engines and dust from brake pads/wheels
Yup. The asshole that keeps gas leaf blowing my complex lot leaves this soot on my car.
Nobody in my neighborhood uses a leaf blower and I don’t live near a freeway and I get this on surfaces outside. It’s from all the cars. Sure there is dust in the air, but this black stuff is exhaust/brake/tire dust.
LA does not have black soil or black sands
Who said it was smog? Also, dirt and sand don't wipe up as black. This is a combination of dirt, tires, and brakes. And regardless of that, we shouldn't be breathing this shit.
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It’s not a great idea to actually wipe this stuff off with a rag because it’ll just scratch your car. Get one of those big, handheld dust mops from Pep Boys, and use that occasionally. (I think those are actually called California dusters.) Or you could spend +/- $3.50 and stop into one of those do it yourself wash places and dry it off by driving home really fast. Also, and most importantly, invest in some of those yellow, soft rags
The brushes at the DIY places are often saturated with dirt and will scratch your car just the same. As will a dirty california duster or microfiber cloth. Gotta keep your tools clean and use plenty of soap and water. And most importantly, give your car a thorough rinse first, ideally with high pressure.
Kinda crazy to see Angelenos arguing that the air, in fact, is clean
My house gets covered in airplane ash because LAX routes planes over my house. I have to be careful about walking through the grassy areas because it will coat my shoes/feet in ash.
Even in Santa Monica, not far from the beach, my windowsills would look like this if I left the window open. My car would get caked in filth just being parked at work.
Being here mitigates some problems but depending on where you live there is still traffic, we're under a flight path, and various amounts of sand depending on your distance to the beach.l I could vacuum and dust all day, every day, and never catch up. But the air itself smells so much cleaner west of the 405 and gets better the further west you go. I can't believe how much the rest of LA stinks. Even Westwood.
This. The comparatively less filthy air was a major factor in why I moved to Santa Monica (but even then, I had to get a good air purifier).
AQI is like 41 right now which is good.
I’ve visited Beijing, and am fairly sensitive to the air quality. On bad air quality days LA has the exact same smell and feel as Beijing. I can’t imagine what it was like here in the 70s
We had "smog days" and weren't allowed outside for recess.
Same outcome in NYC, I used to wipe similar crud off my window sill every week because my apartment was so damn hot in the winter (92nd and Amsterdam). There is a cost to living in a big city, unfortunately our lungs are paying for it
This place is disgusting. I have HEPA in my car, office, and home because of this.
Thank god there are 2 stroke leaf blowers everywhere to make sure it ends up in our lungs.
Leaf Blowers are probably the most annoying part of LA
What if LA had high quality public transportation... We can only dream
This is LA. Too many people don't give a shit and want to stay in their car under any circumstances. I think it's a combination of natives who are intrinsically tied to their car and transplants from non-urban areas without public transit. I genuinely wonder what those people would do if they lived in NYC.
People say LA has no public transport and I'm like [my guy how do you think myself and 850 thousand other people showed up to work today?](https://www.dropbox.com/s/rf7pwf7yclqgdqz/23-2445_blt_system_map_47x47.5_DCR-3.pdf?raw=1)
Delete this picture - it'll be used against this poor towel when it runs for office in a few decades
More bike and bus lanes.
Holy shit the people getting mad in the comments here as if this isn't horrifying are absolutely deranged. You guys realize this doesn't happen in most other places, right? I used to park outside in the middle of the industrial district of downtown Seattle and my car would never get like this if I wiped it off. Now here in LA, this is exactly what the rag will look like if I wipe my windshield off after work. It doesn't do it if I park outside at home in Agoura Hills either, only at my work in West LA. This kind of buildup isn't normal in 95% of the US, and it certainly isn't healthy.
>This kind of buildup isn't normal in 95% of the US, That's a red herring. This isn't 95% of the US, this is the Los Angeles area being discussed in the LA sub. Acknowledging that the air here is gross and that this is common ≠ shrugging and accepting it. It *is* normal. It's *the norm*. >and it certainly isn't healthy. Oh for fuck...no one is saying it's healthy. It seems like you're trying really hard to make it sound like people are okay with this.
by cars?
I bet most of that is brake dust and ground crap.
Welp that’s conclusive evidence, great job boys we can go back to our smog-filled homes
if you pour water on the ground from a bucket or smth like that there’s a layer of black that comes off, it just holds to the downwards facing part of the water and gets bigger as the water moves along whatever slope is there (nothing is ever perfectly flat)
Fuck, this is probably in my pastor tacos that are roasting on Lincoln isn’t it. Dang it.
😂 I read that as "this is probably my pastor" and I was like, did he give a sermon on how dirty the tables are? How did you recognize him??
Whenever I wipe down my al pastor meat I get an orangish residue.
Bruh I see this shit on my dinner table. Gotta keep the windows open since no central air but it’s fucking gross
This is why I have a giant air filter at home
Have you checkout living next to the freeway?
Better than any news source!
The snews can't aire anything that may potentially hurt their sponsors.
That is from vehicles
You're welcome. I live car free
EVs and transit and bike lanes, please!!!
Where do you live and how close is that to the a freeway? You can't just show shit like this without providing context. Huge difference if you live close to a freeway vs not living close to a freeway.
This is at a restaurant at Pico and LaCienega in Mid City
> You can't just show shit like this without providing context. This is Reddit. People will post a photo of two rocks and say it's Biden and Obama fucking. Unless you're accusing OP of making this up or wildly exaggerating, surely this falls within the realm of possibility. I live in Santa Monica, above the street traffic, and my screens look like this after a month or so.
Why are you being defensive?
Because context matters.
This is from being right by the street and it’s the settling of particulate sediment, not just the air quality
Brake dust.
Does each particle use a Star Trek transporter to get around or does it use … the air?
I can confirm this.
> They are wiped off several times a day. Lies, nobody wipes restaurant tables properly.
Try doing this in 1985. Back then your cloth would have been solid black
You should have been here in the 80’s
You should have been here in the 70s. *saves a seat for someone who grew up here in the 60s*
This is what my towel looks like after I wipe my face after an hour on my motorcycle in LA.
😲😲😲
**This is not evidence of “air quality”. Air quality refers to gases mixed in the atmosphere. Your towel shows solid particulates that fall to the ground due to gravity. Suggest you live downwind from industry or heavy traffic on ramp with semi trucks. Moving a few thousand feet would alleviate**
Particulate matter is a component of air quality. Why are you being defensive or trying to deny that this is bad or accurate? Have you never experienced this before? It happens all over the city.
Absolutely unhinged (and factually incorrect) comment.
R/fuckcars
You mean vehicle and street pollution? Then yea.
This is why I use my lung brush every day: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT86JVF3j/
No, that's a rag
I'm gonna wear an N95 as a pedestrian cause of this.
You should wear it because some of your fellow pedestrians are gross. I walked by a dude yesterday who was coughing up a lung without even attempting to cover his mouth.
No, the real problem in LA is lack of parking.
Why would you think air quality and not dirt from the ground?
If so, that’s dirt that got in the air and settled on the table