7//1 Aedes 11 \ . Swedish National Road And
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co Cr o <-] Secondary Environmental <LC co o rw Impact due to Winter o t nm Aaa Road Salting CB < < & Eva Gustavsson and Janet Yakoub f # * _ I_, -Cuss ® ) 753'1 Cisse \ //////lo,,,..~ IN G \ a ///////( . i ] \ \ \ A e d e s 1 1 \ . / / / / / / / / / / / 7 / / 1 l Swedish National Road and & Transport Research Institute VTI meddelande 798A- 1998 Secondary Environmental Impact # due to Winter Road Salting " Eva Gustavsson and Janet Yakoub Swedish National Roadand ' Transport Research Institute VTI MEDDELANDE 798A Pubnsher PubHcaon - VTI meddelande 798A Published Project code - _ 1996 80063 Swedish National Road and Project ''anspart ReseaI'Ch Institute Environmental impact of winter salting Printed in English 1999 Author Sponsor Eva Gustavsson and Janet Yakoub Swedish National Road Administration Tle Secondary Environmental Impact due to Winter Road Salting Abstract (background, aims, methods, result) The term secondary environmental impact refers, inter alia, to the environmental impact which may arise if, because vehicles etc. become dirtier, they have to be cleaned more often and this increases the emissions of vehicle care products. Our aim is to nd out whether winter road salting affects wash frequency, the use of car cleaners and corrosion. Compilation of the responses shows that there are signicant differences in the care of cars between the island of Gotland (unsalted) and the Swedish mainland opposite Gotland (salted), and between part of Vaster- botten County (lightly salted) and part of Vasternorrland County (salted). We consider that if salt application were discontinued, wash frequency would be cut by ca 30% and the use of degreasers and screen wash uid would be reduced by 4070%. We formulated our study as a questionnaire survey. Responses were received from 1,587 car owners, 70% of the sample. ISSN Language No. of pages 0347-6049 English 32 VTI MEDDELANDE 798A Foreword This study has been nanced by the Swedish National The nal version ofthe report was given its fmal form RoadAdministration (SNRA) as part of the project En- by Ann-Louise Flisback, and the cover was drawn by vironmental impact of de-icing salt. The contact person Veronica FredrikssonThe report was translated into at the SNRA was Lennart Axelson. English by Lewis Gruber. The VTI project manager for the main project was We wish to extend our sincere thanks to all who have Lennart Folkeson. This part project was managedby contributed to this report. Eva Gustavsson, and a lot of the work, data registra- tion and statistical analysis, was carried out by Janet Yakoub. Mats Wiklund acted as consultant in relation to Linkoping, November 1996/October 1998 statistical treatment of the collected data. The reader at the seminar prior to publication was Urban Hjorth, Department of Mathematics, University Eva Gustavsson and Janet Yakoub of Linkoping. VTI MEDDELANDE 798A VTI MEDDELANDE 798A Contents Summary .................................................................................................................................................................. ..I 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ .. 13 1.1 Environmental impact due to the washing of vehicles ............................................................................... .. 13 1.2 Relationship between salting, soiling, road wear and the use of studded tyres ......................................... .. 14 1.3 Screen wash uids and rustproong preparations .................................................................................... .. 14 1.4 The attitude of road users to winter road salting ...................................................................................... .. l4 2 Aim and limitations ..................................................................................................................................... .. 15 3 Method ....................................................................................................................................................... .. 16 3.1 Suitable investigation areas ......................................................................................................................... .. 16 3.2 Different methods of investigating secondary environmental impact ........................................................ .. 16 3.3 Procedure used in the preliminary survey .................................................................................................. .. 16 3.4 Procedure used in the main survey ............................................................................................................ .. 17 3.5 Processing of data ...................................................................................................................................... .. 17 4 Results of the preliminary survey .............................................................................................................. .. 18 5 Results of the main survey ......................................................................................................................... .. 22 5.1 Variations in the breakdown of the car population by age ......................................................................... .. 23 5.2 Wash frequency ......................................................................................................................................... .. 23 5.3 Degreaser ................................................................................................................................................... .. 24 5.4 Screen wash uid ....................................................................................................................................... .. 24 5.5 Rustproong treatment .............................................................................................................................. .. 25 5.6 Repair of corrosion damage ....................................................................................................................... .. 25 5.7 Money spent on corrosion damage ............................................................................................................ .. 25 5.8 Where is the car washed? .......................................................................................................................... .. 25 5.9 Many comments regarding salt .................................................................................................................. .. 26 5.10 Summary of results .................................................................................................................................... .. 27 6 Discussion .................................................................................................................................................. .. 28 6.1 Can the differences between regions have a cause other than application of de-icing salt? ...................... .. 28 6.2 What if the whole of Sweden were to become salt-free? .......................................................................... .. 28 6.3 Where the car is washed ............................................................................................................................ .. 29 6.4 Investigations of wash frequency by the National Board for Consumer Policies ..................................... .. 29 6. 5 Development over time .............................................................................................................................. .. 30 7 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................ .. 31 8 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ .. 32 Appendices Appendix 1 Questionnaire regarding car care Appendix 2 Covering letter Appendix 3 The test areas Appendix 4 The survey population Appendix 5 Comments on salt (sample) Appendix 6 Statistical calculations Appendix 7 Salt consumption by National Road Administration Appendix 8 Salting Strategies VH MEDDELANDE 798A VTI MEDDELANDE 798A Secondary environmental impact due to winter road salting by Eva Gustavsson and Janet Yakoub Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) SE581 95 Linképing, Sweden Summary The term secondary environmental impact due to win- There are relatively large differences in climate be- ter road salting refers, inter alia, to the environmental tween the north and south of Sweden, and these are impact which may arise if, because vehicles etc become probably of great importance for the more frequent use dirtier, they have to be cleaned more often and this in- of degreasers and screen wash uid, and the higher creases the emissions of vehicle care products. wash frequency, in the north. Another factor which may The aim of this study is to nd whether winter road be important is that in winter more cars have studded salting affects wash frequency, the use of car cleaners tyres in the north than in the south. It is therefore not and corrosion. relevant to compare test areas in the north with those in Evaluation ofthe answers to the questionnaire shows the south. that there are clear differences in the cleaning of cars There is a clear difference in wash frequency dur- between the island ofGotland in the south (unsalted) and ing the winter between