Current Event - Idling

Unlike switching out lightbulbs and carrying a reusable water bottle, idling cars is a relatively new sustainability venture for me. I suppose this is because I really don't drive much compared to a lot of people; in high school I walked and rode my bike everywhere, and now as a college student I only recently started driving more when I actually got my first car. It's opened my eyes to a couple of things. First, how easy it is to become dependent on; I've talked about this in my footprint posts, but once you know the convenience of a vehicle is there, it's really hard not to take advantage of. The other thing I've become more aware of is idling. This outdated concept has become one of my biggest pet peeves in the past year, and more than once I've been that obnoxious neighbor poking my head out the door to tell people to shut off their engines.

I began to ask some of the car intellectuals in my life about idling, what it does, why we do it, if it's even necessary etc., and each one of them told me the same thing: it's NOT necessary. I even noticed once while crossing the Canada-U. S. border all of the signs that say "B.C. is Idle-free". It's actaully illegal to idle your car at the Canada border, how cool is that? A better question: why don't we have a law like that? Then I found yet another amazing infographic from Sustainable America, which really lays out why idling is such a silly thing.

FACTS

• Idling wastes gas
• Wasted gas = wasted money
• Running cars unnecessarily emits harmful pollutants into the air
• Most cars these days have no reason to be idle

There are a number of old myths about idling that lead people to believe its a good thing. It warms up your car, your car will run better if its sits for a few minutes, etc., but these concepts are no longer relevant to cars made in the last 20-30 years or so. Newer cars are now so efficient to start that idling for ten seconds uses more gas than turning off and restarting your car. TEN SECONDS. Since learning all this I have become a total idle-policer, but I admit there are times when I do let my engine run. My car is a senior citizen in vehicle-years, so unless I want to endanger everyone on the road when I drive, I have to let it defrost and defog for several minutes sometimes. But I am taking the pledge (and getting the sticker) available on Sustainable America's website; I've cut way down on letting my car idle in places like driveways and drive-thrus. I think if people realized that it's not actually better for your engine to let it "warm up", and that all they are accomplishing is wasting gas, they might start to question this habit too.