its taken for granted that broken glass is bad for tyres, but har far would you go to avoid it?
if your path was blocked would you sweep it out of the way with a floor mat? or just bite the bullet and drive?
does the cars weight crush most glass, or does the glass spear into the tyre?
Its purely luck. Depends if you're willing to risk a blowout later because a spike of the glass you couldnt be bothered avoiding punctured the casing of the tyre. But then it depends on the glass. If its nicely shattered car-window type glass i just drive over - its not long enough to puncture the casing. Bottles are another matter.
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That'd depend on what sort of glass it was. Broken car window glass - just drive over it. Base of a bottle with the jagged bits sticking up - try very hard to avoid.
Yes. I do avoid it. There was a situation a couple of days ago, two lanes going into a roundabout, I was in Lane 2 and my exit was covered in broken glass, I had to signal left and wait for a gap in the traffic in lane 1 to drive around it.
I've never worried about avoiding broken glass in a car, and have not suffered a puncture attributable to it in over 40 years of driving.
It's a different matter on a bicycle, where it's definitely a major cause of damage to the very thin tyres and tubes. This is especially the case with wet roads, with wet rubber being much more easily cut by glass. See this informative bicycle FAQ:
Snap. Glass isn't really hard enough to damage car tyres, it just gets ground to dust. I've had loads of punctures, primarily from shards of metal picked up in scrapyards, also from sharp flinty stones, and the occasional vandalism, but none due to glass. Of course one should never say never......
Steve
In a mere 8 years of driving ive had, personally, one glass puncture (which taught me) and my friend has had his sidewall slashed by glass which later blew out on the motorway. Not worth the risk IMO. Stay lucky!
Radial sidewalls are especially vulnerable to cuts, although not usually from objects lying on the road - more from sharp things we might rub the tyres up against.
A problem with trying to avoid glass is the fact that it's not as visible in wet conditions, and that's when it's got much more potential to cut (with water acting as a "cutting" lubricant).
John
Naturally, but you cant suggest never avoiding it just because sometimes you cant see it :)
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