Get out of your car and walk in to get your freakin donuts people!

I have to shake my head at the insanely huge lineups I see at a certian donut/coffee shop drive throughs and other fast food restaurants. It makes me sick that in this day and age when just about every scientist on the planet are publishing statistics that clearly show climate change isn't about to happen or will happen in the near future, but in reality is happening now. All those cars sitting there idling away, spewing out green house gas emmisions not to mention buring up all that fuel. *sigh*

So I thought I would do a little research into what we can do to reduce our:

1. fuel consupmtion and vehicle expenses


2. green house gass emissions


3. promote a greener community,lets face it, the changes that need to be made don't have to be huge if we all do our part at home and in our daily routines.

So lets look at point number one. A very common myth is still widely held in regards to idling your car and warming it up on those cold winter days. This in fact, is not the case, especially with the new cars. You should not have to idle your car for more that 30 seconds, doing so is very hard on the engine, catalytic converter, and wastes fuel. It is also a myth that frequently starting your engine is bad. Studies have shown that this will cost you about $10 per year (I am assuming in replacement starters) versus the higher costs of fuel consumption. Another way to look at it, it costs more to idle your car for 10 seconds than to restart your engine. Simple cost benefit analyis there.

When considering point number two, it isn't just our wallet that benefits, but the air we all breathe. It is estimated that 5000 people die prematurley each year with health problems that are related to the poor air quality from the smog created by the number of vehilces on todays highways and roads. However this number still doesn't seem to scare people enough to cause change. Perhaps these numbers will: If we were all to reduce our idling by 5 minutes a day we would save 1.8 million liters of fuel per day. That is almost 4500 tonnes of green house gas emmisions and a savings of 1.7 million in fuel costs (avg fuel cost .95cents/L), again PER DAY!

What are other ways we can reduce our idling? Thats a good question. Many municipalites have instituted anti idling bylaws. However they are very limited and not all that enforeable. Some are only in effect in the mornings on hot summer days but not in the afternoon when the temps are high and people are running their air conditioners. The reverse is true in the winter. The bylaws are not in effect when it is super cold because people want to be allowed to idle away to warm up their vehicles. In addition to that by the time a bylaw officer gets to the complaint the driver is usually gone. Frustrating I am sure.

I am not saying anti-idling bylaws won't work. But what we need to do is educate, educate and EDUCATE the public, then introduce a bylaw or a test area to find out which bylaw works best, then introduce a bylaw. But thats just my opinion.

And besides, oil is a non renewable resource. We will run out one day, and I think sooner than we want to believe and that the governments of the world will admit to. Lets all do our part. Reduce our idling by 5 (or more!) minutes a day, even better yet, don't go through drive throughs, get out, walk in and place you order. I find I am in and out faster when I go inside than the lazy asses sitting in their cars/trucks waiting in line, idling away.

For more info: http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/transportation/personal/idling.cfm?attr=8 yes it is a government website. If you don't like the stats here google "anit-idling" or something similar and educate yourself :)