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Go nuts, punctuation sticklers. This sign, which either admonishes drivers for leaving their engines idling or encourages loafing youths to hold their breath, was recently spotted outside P.S. 277 in Brooklyn. Besides contributing to global warming, CO2 emissions from vehicles are a major factor in NYC's high childhood asthma rates; the malady is the most common cause of hospitalization for New York children 14 years and younger. Last month, Mayor Bloomberg signed a law reducing the permitted idling time near schools from three minutes to one minute, with potential fines ranging from $220 to $2,000 for repeat offenders.
But rookie Queens Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley says that reform doesn't go far enough. She represents the district where, last month, a drunken driver stole an unoccupied idling car and fatally struck two pedestrians; earlier this year, an idling truck crashed into a group of pre-schoolers, killing two, in Chinatown. Currently, the fine for idling outside of school zones is just $5, which Crowley described as a "severe penalty" when the law was written, in 1971. If her proposal passes, it would increase to $250.
She tells City Room that besides improving air quality, "this has to do with more how irresponsible it is to leave your car unattended. It’s sort of like inviting a crime." According to the Times, 10% of car thefts in the precinct where the Queens accident took place start with an unattended idling car (and almost 100% of those cars are owned by complete idiots.)
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$250 for letting your car idle (and potentally keep you warm)? Nuts!
No, $250 for unnecessarily polluting the air the people around you are breathing, wasting natural resources, and adding to the noise level. If it happens to be cold out then dress appropriately, though people idle all year round.
There is a lot of good information about idling at http://energy.enfield.nh.us/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=62&Itemid=64
I invite them to come camp out on W. 111th between 5th and Lenox. We'll be out of this budget crunch in just a few weeks.
Any idiot who sits in an idling car deserves a ticket.
But $5 for idling cars outside of school zones is crazy too.
Tip of the Day: go to Beth Israel on 16th street. Every morning I pass several ambulances just idling endlessly there. The drivers are hanging out, there's no good reason why they can't shut off the motors.
They have excuses for that. Some claim that the turbodiesel engines on ambulettes would take a few minutes to warm up if they shut them down in cold weather, which may be valid. Others claim that they need to keep the drugs inside from freezing. Critics say that for the short periods that they're actually sitting idle (less than 30 minutes), the interior wouldn't get cold enough to freeze drugs. I would guess they need to keep the interior warm enough for any patients they might have to pick up on a moment's notice. Reverse that in the summertime to keep drugs and patients safely cool.
What would happen if it wasn't a turbo diesel? And why do these fools show up a half hour early?
Sit in a warm car in the middle of winter and the temperature would probably only drop ten to twenty degrees in a half hour span. It's called don't open the window fool.
Try taking a trip down on Greenwich Street between Spring and Vandam and you will see those idiots idling away.
I wish they would actually enforce these laws. If I was a cop I cold make my monthly quota for tickets in one day, I'm sure. Any time there is alternate side parking, you see all the people in their cars with the engine running. Then, there are all the delivery trucks, they are the worst. Most of them don't even seem to have functioning exhaust systems, they spew their blue diesel smoke all over the city without any repercussions.
agreed. there are limited police resources to deal with dumbass motorists and adding new laws will only weaken enforcement of the old.
cell-phone yappers pose a much greater risk to pedestrians and other drivers but you rarely see them ticketed except on those super-enforcement-blitz days.
problem with some of the laws doesn't make common sense. deliveries have to be made, they should make delivery spots like taxi stands on each street and get like half hour to hour parking.
what does shutting off the engine have to do with making a delivery?
Making a delivery does not negate the ability to shut off your engine. Your argument has to do with space which makes literally no discernible point in this argument.
Slow Children at Play...
it's not just leaving your car idling with you waiting in the driver's seat. It's about leaving your car idling and unattended, which makes no goddamn sense in the first place as you're wasting gasoline and can potentially have your vehicle stolen.
I don't buy the "delivery" excuse either. If you have to leave your truck to make a delivery, turn off the ignition.
It's laziness and stupidity. The only ones who shouldn't have to shut their engines off are ambulance drivers and other emergency responders as they could get a call at any time, if they happen to stop for a coffee or lunch or something. Otherwise, shut your damn engines off idiots.
There are probably tens of thousands of people at any given workday working inside their vehicle. It is no more greedy for them to use their engine to keep them warm/cool than those doing the same I'm an office building.
Boilers and chillers used in building systems are designed specifically for heating and cooling. They are vastly more efficient than a car's engine for these purposes. You also have to consider that cars are not insulated, and they have single-pane windows with poor seals.
In terms of energy use and pollution, using a car for heating/cooling purposes only is wasteful.
(Damn iPhone self correcting keyboard)
Rather than announce these rules and then selectively enforce them, why not allow drivers to pay an annual fee of $1,000 to idle, yap on their cellies, and behave like the annoying idiots they are without fear of additional hassles? That would guarantee the city some much needed revenue while getting something out of these jerks that we all know will never get stopped or ticketed for their bullshit.
You can't be serious.
Sometimes it's important to idle. Where I used to live on W83rd Street, parking was very hard. My wife used our car to get to work in New Jersey and when she'd come home one of us would have to park the car. We could drive around the block or we could sit in one spot and wait for something to open up ahead of us. The latter was way less stresful to us and probably put out less pollution total. Sitting in the car with the engine off wouldn't work -- the competition for parking was so intense by the time we got the car started somebody would be able to pass us and get the spot.
PS Yeah, it would be nice if there was a train that could take her to/from work in reasonable time, but the train trip takes 2hrs, including a cab ride on the far end or a little longer if she walks a mile along the road there, a road with no sidewalk.
No offense, but you getting a parking spot doesn't sound that important to me.
isn't it true that a car idling for 20 minutes is equivalent in both pollution and fuel consumption to one time starting a vehicle?
unattended vehicles idling is just stupid and the vehicle should be towed. but if someone's in there? please. just another way to dig into our pockets.
No. That was true in the 70s-80s with carburetors. In the world of modern electronic fuel injection, it is completely false. (Think about your statement wrt hybrid vehicles, which start and stop the engine hundreds of times per trip)
Yeah! Nasty pollution! So get rid of those nasty CITY BUSES!
They stink. Every time they take off at the green light, they cover us with a layer of dark muck.
If you take the city bus, you're a polluter!
Drive a clean car instead. Or better yet, take a bike.
Politburo, if you don't think that adding, say an hour or two to my wife's commute in terms of waiting for a parking spot for that long, instead of 10-15 minutes is important, you have a strange perspective.