Do Us All a Favor: Turn Off that Idling Engine
By: Lee Ann Rush
We see it every day at fast food restaurants; in snaking lines at drive-through banking windows; at schools, school bus stops and train stations; even on gasoline lines where "Turn Off Ignition" signs are routinely posted -- drivers leaving their vehicles running while waiting for their lunch, their turn, their child or passenger, or for no apparent reason at all. While many state and municipal vehicle codes and environmental regulations proscribe lengthy engine idling (for example, New York State sets forth a 5-minute limit; New York City and New Jersey permit only three minutes), enforcement is lax and, as a result, these rules are routinely ignored.
But doesn't restarting a vehicle burn more fuel than leaving it running? Actually, no. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, idling a car for any longer than 10 seconds wastes more fuel than turning off and restarting the engine. Today's automobiles will suffer more wear from excess idling than from frequent starts because their engines are running longer while idling. Modern electronic engine components have eliminated the need to "warm up" newer cars before driving them, and starting the ignition will no longer harm the engine or battery.
On the other hand, unnecessary and/or excessive idling not only wastes fuel and money (depending on the vehicle, idling will burn anywhere from 20-70% of a gallon of gas per hour), it drastically increases pollution in the form of carbon dioxide and other chemical emissions in the vehicle exhaust. Carbon dioxide is the main contributor to global warming, and we've all seen the recent news: 2012 was officially the hottest year on record in the United States. Coincidence? Perhaps not, when you consider that idling one motor vehicle for only 10 minutes releases a pound of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Do the math; the results are staggering.
The impact upon our environment caused by unnecessary vehicle idling is bad enough, but worse still is the devastation all these exhaust emissions are causing to our health. Besides carbon dioxide, gasoline-engine vehicle exhaust contains carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, various particulate matter and volatile organic compounds; diesel exhaust releases over 40 different hazardous pollutants into the atmosphere. None of these emissions are healthy, whether one is breathing them while walking past an idling car or sitting inside that idling car. Vehicle exhaust has been shown to contribute to increases in asthma, cancers, chronic bronchitis and heart disease, with children, asthmatics and the elderly most likely to suffer the most severe effects.
We can't avoid idling our cars in heavy traffic or at stoplights, but we certainly can do more to minimize the unnecessary release of vehicle exhaust caused by the mindless idling that many of us engage in multiple times each day. Is your health and the health of your family worth the "convenience" of leaving your car running?
