+1 for this guy. as an engine mechanic my third most common question is "can you get my car to pass a smog check??"<p>And the answer is usually, "maybe."
So many cars are just behind on the maintenance that one expensive checkup is all it takes before they pass and become slightly less noxious on the road.<p>The biggest, most infuriating thing for me however is professional drivers / truckers that insist upon idling because "WELL the sticker says its CALIFORNIA clean idle certified!" That doesnt mean people wont hate you for filling the streets with diesel fumes while you finish your lunch.
Exhaust particulates are the absolute worst as far as city dwelling. I had a balcony overlooking a boulevard in Paris. I would have to clean it every week from the diesel particulates that settled there. One time, after we went on holiday, I came back and tried to clean it and just gave up. It was so thick it filled 3 dust pans. After that I just locked the glass door and never went out there again.<p>Then I thought about how much of that junk is making its way into my lungs.<p>The city of Paris has only recently started to take any action on it. One was to ban trucks of a certain age. But now everyone is requesting waivers because they can't meet deliveries in the city.
I mean, I don't even get why people just idle their cars like that.<p>I've been told it's to keep the air conditioning on, but I see people idling with their windows rolled down, in the summer and winter alike. I've been told it's to play the radio, but most of the time I can't hear any radio and in any case, come on- you got a phone right?<p>There's no good reason that applies in most situations and that makes it even harder to understand. Because it means people just ...don't turn their engine off when they're only stopped for a while. Because. I don't know. It costs action points?
I can't read the article (I really should subscribe) but I think people seriously underestimate the positive effects moving to electric cars will have on city livability and city property values. Because we're all born into a world where engine particulates are ubiquitous, I think we're missing how much of an improvement clean air would be.
We don't have that law in Hawaii, unfortunately. I used to love to eat at a local Quiznos which had outdoor seating, but was located next to a supermarket. People would park there cars five feet from where I was eating and let them idle for 20-30 minutes while they sort out their grocery list, or while one person runs inside to shop and the other waits. Made me crazy--the noise, the stink. I stopped eating their, and apparently everyone else did too, as they went out of business.
>...showing a video he’d taken with his phone of a concrete truck near the corner of William and Fulton Streets.<p>A truck carrying concrete has to keep the drum rotating to keep the concrete mixed. To do that it has to have its engine running.
While I agree with the objective - that cars/trucks should shutdown instead of idling, I have to wonder, do we really want to a society where people are paid to report their neighbors? Sure it seems like this guy is doing everything properly (documenting real cases of random idling), but what happens when people start using things like this for harassment/revenge, fabricating idling cases (similar to the Uber vomit cleanup scam), and generally making a living off getting people fined.<p>Compare this to a trained law enforcement officer who doesn't personally make money on every fine who will take the whole situation into account, rather than just trying to make a buck.<p>This make work out fine at this small scale, but we should be cautious when it comes to creating untrained citizen bounty hunters.
This dovetails nicely with a new study from Canada, which found 25% cars produce 90% pollution.<p><a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150421105344.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150421105344.h...</a><p>"The study made on-the-spot measurements of 100,000 vehicles as they drove past air-sampling probes of the main laboratory on College Street, one of Toronto's many major roadways."<p>Also interesting was their findings of how pollution from roads permeates the surround areas, and the complex ways pollution from multiple roads produces additive exposure.
Engine exhaust is full of carcinogens. Given this, it is entirely fair to fine polluters in proportion to the level of harm they cause. Outsourcing the enforcement to citizens is a bit strange, but it is important work and someone should be paid to enforce the law.
I suppose he got his wish considering newer cars automatically shut off the engine after idling for a few seconds, and turn it back on when you want to go.
What about refrigerated diesel trucks? When the diesel engine turns off, the cooling turns off. Has this tattletale also considered the horrendous emissions of engines whose catalysts cool down? Idling is sometimes cleaner, sometimes dirtier, this kind of blanket enforcement makes no sense to me.<p>Where I live in CA, people object to diesel idling more due to noise than anything else.
Thanks, George. Now please get noise violations on the NYC cars that pollute our air with pealing horns. Cab drivers especially seem to spend their entire shift impotently honking.
This absolutely pisses me off too, especially when it's right outside my home because it's also noise pollution. I don't understand these people... do they go home and just leave taps running while fiddling with their phones? there is no good reason to do this unless you are in an extremely cold environment.
If anyone wants to learn more about the health effects of diesel exhaust, beyond the oft publicized "lung cancer" risk, this is a very detailed lecture on the topic from a guy at WWU.<p><a href="https://youtu.be/aXEal4YJsOU" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/aXEal4YJsOU</a>
Gitem tiger!<p>I wish we could go past idling and start mandating some serious emissions controls, especially on diesel truck and heavy equipment engines in urban areas, but also on all the rest of the emitters.
Sounds like a problem that would easily be resolved by federal regulations that would turn an engine off after three minutes automatically unless some other switch, ideally obscured or hidden behind a ui, is pressed (has to be pressed each time the engine is started). Seems like a simple solution, like lights that turn off with the engine but like that advancement, it'll probably take decades to standardize without proper federal regulation.
If only they could enforce against those ridiculous smoke-stacks people install on their trucks. Here in Texas - even in Austin - I probably see one or two a week: <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/07/rolling_coal_conservatives_who_show_their_annoyance_with_liberals_obama.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/201...</a><p>Every time I see one, I just want to drop a softball-sized lump of silly-putty down there.
This is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. 3 minutes? A $350 fine? Are you kidding me? I spend longer than that idling in a fast food parking lot eating my food. How do any judges sleep at night enforcing this? I'm not going to sit in a hot/freezing car in traffic if I can help it by running the climate control inside for a while first (definitely takes more than 3 minutes, or especially that particularly ridiculous 1 minute in school zones). I guess these people would prefer my dog suffer in the heat instead of sitting in air conditioning for 5 minutes while I get something out of a gas station. More and more reason I never want anything to do with NYC.<p>The goal of protecting the environment is so that it can better serve us in the future. The environment is not an end in itself. Idling regulations are far too great of an inconvenience compared to the tiny benefit. I hope this war on cars is just a fad.