Green Calgary

Whats the matter, are your fingers broken?

Reader Question

Dear Ashley,

Perhaps this is a bit off-topic, but do you have any ideas on how I can tactfully tell people who are idling their cars to shut off their engines while they wait the restaurant, convenience store, or gas station? I do not want my "lights punched out".

Best Regards,
Mona

Ashley's Answer

Hello Mona,

If there’s one thing that gets me red-faced, it’s idling. But I should note that it hasn’t always been this way. Growing up in Northern Saskatchewan I recall my father instructing me to go warm up the truck before heading out to run a day worth of errands, even before I was old enough to drive. This was common procedure in my household. When I was old enough to drive myself, I recall running outside in my slippers, the mercury sitting at a chilly -20C, to start my car so that when I was ready to go, it would be comfortable enough to wear my lederhosen. I was always told that if the car wasn’t warm enough for me, how could I expect it to be warm enough for the engine. I didn’t think twice about it.

It wasn’t until years later, while consulting the owners manual to my new car, that I learned that the engine doesn’t need to be warmed up for 20 minutes to prevent engine damage, even at -20C. Fancy that! Natural Resource Canada’s website states that “contrary to popular belief, idling isn’t an effective way to warm up your vehicle, even in cold weather. The best way to warm it up is to drive it. In fact, with today’s engines, you need no more than 30 seconds of idling on winter days before you start to drive.”

This is because idling doesn’t allow the engine to operate at its peak temperature, meaning that the fuel doesn’t undergo complete combustion. This is the reason why an idling vehicle emits nearly 20 times more pollution than one traveling at 50 km/h. Incomplete combustion causes fuel residues to condense on the cylinder walls, contaminating the oil and depositing themselves on the spark plugs. The more time spent idling, the lower the spark plug temperature, thus resulting in poorer fuel efficiency. But doesn’t starting the engine use more gas than just letting it run?

The City of Calgary’s website states that “more than 10 seconds of idling uses more fuel than turning your engine off and restarting it again. So if you stop for more than 10 seconds, except in traffic, turn off your engine!” Studies show that frequent restarting has little, if any, effect on the starter or battery, meaning that turning off your engine will only result in savings and with 650,000 vehicles on Calgary’s roads, the savings are immense. It is estimated that if Calgarians were to reduce their idling by just 1 minute a day, in one year they would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 11,200 tonnes, save 4.7 million litres of fuel and $3 million in fuel costs.

Idling also contributes to poor air quality, particularly around Toronto and Vancouver where the population density, climate and geography provide the perfect combination for the formation of smog. Each year in Canada it is estimated that 5000 people die prematurely due to air pollution, with thousands more becoming ill. This burdens the health care system and in Ontario alone, the health care costs for those affected have ballooned to $9.9 billion per year.

To combat the problems associated with idling, municipalities including Toronto, Windsor, Montreal and Vancouver, to name a few, have implemented anti-idling bylaws. In fact, anti-idling provisions have been part of municipal bylaws for at least three decades. Montreal passed an air quality by-law in 1970 and the first stand-alone anti-idling by-law was passed in the City of Toronto in 1996. Here in Calgary, Alderman Druh Farrell introduced an anti-idling motion in 2002 but it failed at Council. Instead the motion was amended to apply only to City of Calgary vehicles (maximum idling limit of 5 minutes unless it is essential for the performance of work) and to embark on an education campaign for Calgarians in general. A number of anti-idling signs were posted around the city and there was a media blitz on the issue but the publicity was short lived.

So, in lieu of an anti-idling bylaw, how do we get people to stop idling? I really believe that we need to make idling an anti-social behavior, much like smoking in public spaces. Giving people the facts about idling may be more effective than just trying to tell them to shut their vehicle off. The City of Calgary has a limited number of idling signs available to people who are interested in putting one around their place of work or at their kid’s school. They also have an anti-idling sign that can be downloaded for anyone interested in printing off their own sign. Likewise, Natural Resources Canada has an anti-idling ticket filled with useful facts that you can issue motorists who are idling.

By educating those people that continue to idle, combined with messages that discourage the behavior, I believe that people will start to understand that idling is completely unnecessary. In the meantime we can put up signs, handout tickets (this gives us time to get our message across while avoiding confrontation) and contact our alderperson to let them know that we support an anti-idling bylaw. With a combined effort I’m hopeful that we can make idling a thing of the past.

Kind regards,
Ashley

Post to Twitter Share on Facebook