Idling restrictions
Another Four Years of Idling?
A Letter from January 2007
To the Editor, Brockville Recorder & Times:
Those idling at Timmy's on William Street are doing more damage than the souls hanging out over on King. No matter how efficient a car is, idling more than 10 seconds wastes fuel, costs money and pollutes the air. Reducing idling times is one of the easiest ways we each, as individuals, can help to mitigate the rate of climate change.
With fossil fuel consumption integrated so deeply into our lives, we tend to see only the enormity of the challenge ahead of us. We tend to evade personal responsibility and expect big government to sort it all out. As we've seen through the past decade, a federal master plan has been "too little, too late" and there's no sign yet of improvement.
But there are many steps we each can take right now, as individuals. We can stop idling our cars. We can switch to CFL light bulbs in our homes. We can turn off home electronics when they're not in use. And we can bring this sense of responsibility to the groups that we participate in, as employees, church members, shoppers, volunteers, and citizens.
City council is now establishing priorities for its new four year mandate. Concerned citizens should contact their representatives now, and urge them to act on climate change. Until it publicly clarifies and implements a climate change action plan, the City itself is idling.
Hugh Campbell
Update, January 2011
Four years later, and we have a new Council. At one of its first meetings, on the recommendation of our City's planning office, our new Council approved the addition of a second drive-through lane at the Mcdonalds on Parkedale Avenue.
REAL urges Town of Perth to pass its anti-idling bylaw
Perth EMC / Barb Hicks / 02 September 2010
The following is a letter sent to Perth mayor John Fenik and council by the Rideau Environmental Action League (REAL) in response to the town's anti-idling bylaw debate.
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The Rideau Environmental Action League (REAL) wishes to encourage you to pass the anti-idling bylaw and to set an example for the other municipalities in Lanark, Leeds and Grenville counties.
Perth: Idling fines to start next year
YourOttawaRegion.com / Laura Mueller / 18 August 2010
Perth drivers should get ready to be dinged for idling their vehicles, as the town plans to enact an anti-idling bylaw next summer.
While the bylaw will not apply to vehicles stopped in traffic or at railways crossings, it will be enforced for vehicles in parking spaces, parking lots and driveways. Drivers caught idling will be slapped with an $8 fine starting June 30, 2011.
Toronto: One-minute idling limit
Toronto Star / David Rider / 03 May 2010
Toronto’s Board of Health has voted in favour of reducing the maximum time motorists can idle their motors without risking a $125 fine to just one minute.
The move to knock the no-idling limit down from three minutes goes next to city council at its June 8-9 meeting. If the idea is approved, the city will need to ask the province to amend legislation so parking officers can write tickets for idling and dramatically step up enforcement of a widely ignored bylaw.
The board also recommended eliminating the current exemption for idling on very cold or very hot days. And it wants to replace a clause that allows TTC vehicles to idle for up to 15 minutes with one that says transit vehicles can only run while stopped for “an identified need.”
Stop unnecessary vehicle idling around your school
No one wants their children breathing exhaust, and yet a great deal of idling takes place at schools, where buses and cars line up to drop off and pick up children. And children are especially susceptible to the harmful effects of vehicle exhaust. Consider the following:
. Children breathe 50 percent more air per pound than adults.
. Asthma is the third leading cause of hospitalization among children under the age of 15.
. Children’s asthma symptoms increase as a result of car exhaust.
. Asthma is the most common chronic illness in children and the cause of most school absences.
. Exposure to vehicle exhaust increases the risk of death from heart and lung disease and lung cancer.
Asthma Free School Zone
Imagine trying to catch your breath through a soda straw. Now imagine learning to read at the same time. That's the challenge of asthma, the lung disease with the fastest growing incidence in the US and in the world.
Until all air is clean air, our children need informed and motivated adults to watch over and help achieve clean air in school zones–a place where extraordinary numbers of children congregate to play and learn.
City shows that idling reduction can achieve results, even in a cold climate
Key Facts
City: Williams Lake, BC
Population: 12,000
Number of Municipal Motorized Vehicles: 65
Average January Temperature: -10 C
Approximate Fuel Savings: 20%
