• Home
• About
• Blog Roll

Green Journal: Stop Idling
October 29, 2007

Up until this week, my green journal actions have been focused on personal changes like bringing my own cups or gardening organically or reusing hard-to-recycle items. However, this week, I’ve join a group of concerned Moms who want to stop unnecessary car idling.

source:Seattle University

Why? Because unnecessary idling gets ZERO MPG but emits the same greenhouse gases as driving. Because stop idling requires no new technology, no additional costs and can actually save you money, not to mention the environment.

Although many states, including California, have anti-idling laws targeting diesel vehicles and trucks, these laws are rarely enforced and passenger cars are generally not included. Only a few places like New York City and New Jersey have explicitly included passenger vehicles. But more often than not, it’s the average driver who idles while waiting for someone, sitting at the drive thru or just running the vehicle until the end of a favorite song.

Because we are Moms, we’ve agreed to start at the local schools, where car idling is rampant during pick ups and drop offs. We figure that schools and concerned parents would be willing to cooperate, if they were aware of both the health and environmental issues. To kick-off this effort, I did some research on the impact of unnecessary idling.

Here are some facts that I was unaware of before starting this effort.

Unnecessary Idling Creates Unnecessary Health Risks
Car exhaust emits nitrogen oxide (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulate matters (PMs), carbon monoxide and dioxide (CO and CO2). What does this mean? Excessive inhalation of car exhaust can cause breathing difficulties, aggravate asthma, heart disease, headaches and visual impairment. Add sunlight and heat to the mix, you get smog. Add water to that mix, you get acid rain.

Being Inside the Car Does NOT Protect You from Pollutants
Many people believe as long as you are inside the car with the window closed, you are protected from breathing these pollutants. Not so. In fact, studies have found exposure to car pollutants is higher INSIDE vehicles than on the roadside(1). The highest exposure occur while sitting in a line of idling vehicles – like pick up spots at schools or drive thrus.

Idling Costs More than Turning Off Your Engine
A general rule of thumb, if you are idling for more than 10 seconds, you are using more gas and emitting more pollutants than restarting your engine(2). One hour of idling can unnecessarily burn about 0.5 gallons of gas. And one gallon of gas emits about 20 pounds of CO2 (3).

Idling Is Not Necessarily the Best Way to Warm Up a Cold Car
Even on cold winter days, modern engines need little to no “warm up” period – about 30 seconds or less. Driving the vehicle is the best way to warm up the car. Fuel is only partially combusted during idle because the engine is not at peak temperature. This may lead to residual buildup that can damage fuel efficiency and the engine

And just to put idling into broader perspective, our friend at Envirostats mentioned that in 2006, American drivers wasted 2.9 billion gallons of fuel, at the cost of $78.2 billion, idling in traffic. You can argue that idling in traffic is necessary, which is probably true. But then isn’t that just one more reason to NOT idle UNNECESSARILY?

In addition, I found a great, downloadable Anti-idling brochure, perfect for our efforts.

Our next step is to meet with the local school principal and get on the next PTA agenda so stay tuned….

CindyC at Organicpicks

If you enjoyed this entry, please subscribe to the Organic Picks Blog

Footnotes:
(1) according to study co-founded by California Air Resources Board and South Cost AQMD
(2) supported by Study from American Society of Mechanical Engineers
(3) Per fueleconomy.gov

Copyright 2007 Organicpicks