07.07.2009
Bridgestone holiday tip: check your tyres before you go!
As millions of Europeans drive off for their summer vacation, many will leave without checking the condition or pressure of their tyres. And yet driving on tyres, which are under inflated or excessively worn could have a drastic effect on their journey, according to Bridgestone.
Through a joint worldwide initiative with the FIA Foundation in the Think Before You Drive road safety campaign, Bridgestone has carried out more than 100,000 free car tyre inspections in Europe since 2005.
This programme has identified that 26% of drivers run on under-inflated tyres. Almost all of these motorists are unaware of the adverse consequences of their behaviour – to their safety, to their fuel budget and to the environment.
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The first consequence of low tyre pressure is that it puts your safety at risk. Deflation leads to a loss of handling control, increased vehicle drift, and lower tyre durability due to the stress and heat build-up from tyre sidewall bending.
The increased weight of holiday baggage, extra passengers and a caravan or boat in tow adds to the potentially dangerous situation.
Secondly, low tyre pressure hits your pocket. It not only increases tyre rolling resistance, pushing up fuel consumption, but also increases tread wear, thus reducing the life of your tyre. Tyre wear life is halved if pressure falls from 2.2 bar to 1.0 bar.
Thirdly and worse still, driving on low pressure adds an unwanted extra load on the environment, through increased fuel consumption and harmful CO2 emissions.
Bridgestone’s Technical Center Europe, based near Rome in Italy, calculates that the 26% of motorists who routinely drive on under-inflated tyres use more fuel than they need to – equivalent to 3.9billion litres of extra fuel a year worth 5.1 billion euros. They also emit an extra 9.2 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
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