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girlawhirl's never idle, but why does it seem like everyone else is? Apr 10, 2008
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In her city, Girlawhirl sees idling taxis, delivery trucks and other vehicles everywhere she goes. Super Pals who live in the suburbs complain of school buses that idle before making their way around their routes and even worse, lines of cars with their motors running waiting to pick up the kiddies after school... Truth be told, there really isn't a good reason to let a vehicle continue to run when it's stopped. Girlawhirl's not referring to red-light stopping here or normal traffic pauses, but rather the just-a-minute-while-someone-runs-into-the-store-to-grab-something kind of stop.
It was thought that leaving the car running for such stops is fine, even better some had said than shutting off and restarting an engine. But it's since been proven that shutting down is the best way to go when more than a 10 second stop is on the agenda.
In the long run, it saves on both pollution and carbon emissions and creates less wear and tear on your car's engine – a car in idle runs quite inefficiently.
Girlawhirl knows there are plenty of city and state ordinances about truck, car and bus idling, but judging from all the idling she sees herself, it seems that they're not often enforced. That's too bad, because she's read that every day 3.8 million gallons of gas are wasted in the US alone just by idling vehicles!
Want to set up a no idle program at your kids' school? Click here for more information.
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Starting a car does not drain a battery, even if it's started a lot, and modern car engines don't need to be warmed up before beginning to drive. Driving is really the best way to warm up a car.
