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Politics & Government

Leave That Car Idling For More Than Three Minutes And You're Breaking The Law

Not To Mention, You're Wasting Gas, Creating Unnecessary Pollution, And Being "Fuelish"; Still, Law Is Only Rarely Enforced

With nearly 10 percent of the state’s population diagnosed with asthma and pressures on worldwide to reduce vehicle exhaust and carbon dioxide emissions, one remedy sits quietly in the state statutes: the anti-idling law, passed seven years ago. Authorities say they rarely hear complaints about idling and hardly ever can enforce this cumbersome bit of legislation.

Officially, a person breaks the law if he leaves the car running more than 3 minutes, even if all he’s doing is buying a cup of coffee. Trucks in truck stops are supposed to turn off their engines after 3 minutes, too. The state would need a special force to deal with all of these situations. The enforcing agency is not local or state police departments but rather the air bureau of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.

“The bulk of what we do for enforcement is focused on stationary sources,” said Robert Girard, assistant director of air enforcement for the DEP, “places we can go back to again and again. We’re very limited. Because we’re not police officers, we don’t have the ability to pull someone over. We don’t have the ability to go ahead and take immediate enforcements. It makes it much more difficult to initiate an enforcement program, because we don’t have the authority.”

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Startling facts support need for action

Girard said his department distributes signs and brochures to teach people what to do. The anti-idling webpage lists startling facts:

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  • An idling car or truck emits 20 times more pollution than one traveling at 30 miles per hour;
  • For each hour of idling, a typical truck burns about one gallon of diesel fuel and a typical car, one-fifth of a gallon of gas.

Even though the anti-idling law doesn’t empower police officers to ticket drivers, they might refer complaints to the air bureau. But several eastern Connecticut police departments I called said they could not remember one complaint about idling in recent years.

Offenders will be given a piece of paper and request for action plan

Someone who sees a truck idling in a lot for hours can call the DEP air bureau’s complaint line at 860-424-3436. The bureau will send field staffers out to locate the drivers, at the scene of the idling if possible. The staffers give them pieces of paper called notices of violation that give the offending operators one month to respond with plans on what they will do differently.

It sounds fairly civilized and polite. Because the situations when drivers can’t avoid idling seem to blur into those where they could shut off the engines, rarely will anyone see a state field officer approaching someone who was trying to buy a box of donuts.

 “It’s like sitting in a drive-through at a restaurant,” Girard said. “If you’re sitting there, we’re not going to approach you. But if you’re just sitting outside waiting for your child, there is no reason to idle that vehicle in excess of 3 minutes.”

Idling of taxis halted

The DEP will deal firmly with chronic idling problems, Girard said. One recent example was their stopping the idling of taxis at Bradley International Airport. But Girard said they can’t race out to a school in time to hand notices of violation to parents waiting to take their kids to music lessons—they’d be gone before they got there. But half of the schools in the state have requested signs from the DEP that announce the idling law, he said. And the DEP will respond to complaints about recurring idling anywhere, whether at a school or any parking lot or truck stop.

Speaking of waiting for children: A different state law against school bus idling does place authority with the police, who can give out tickets, resulting in a fine of $117.

And, speaking of truck stops: Girard said that the DEP has not gone after the state Department of Transportation, which operates truck stops on the highway.

Cars stuck in traffic jams exempted

One might wonder: Traffic jams halt cars and trucks for so long in the summer; are stuck travelers violating air pollution laws? Fortunately the law exempts cars waiting in a jam.

For all the other legitimate offenses, the environmental authorities would like to progress to something more serious than what the law allows now. Girard said the DEP has asked the General Assembly in previous sessions to strengthen the law to allow the DEP to issue tickets to motor vehicles. So far this request hasn’t led to changes.

For now the most effective thing the DEP can do, it believes, is an education campaign, with a brochure designed to look like tickets—“Idling is Fuelish”—and a video, “Wastebusters.”

More links:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s idling page

The Centers for Disease Control asthma page

Article by Matthew Wald in The New York Times on vehicle exhaust and health problems.

Related Topics: and Did you know idling was illegal?

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