Car Idling

I am currently writing a letter to the person in charge of the Staging area at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (“PHX“). We have this great area where you can park and wait for flights to come in and then go to the terminal and pick up passengers. I love it.

The problem is, it’s become an idling area, not a parking area. I was there last week, at night, there were more than 20 cars in the lot, all of them were running. I know, it’s Phoenix, it’s the summer. For any of you out there who know me personally, you know I am all about NOT being hot. I pulled in, parked, turned off the car. Had the windows open. There was a breeze. It was pleasant enough, really. If I didn’t need the air conditioner, I can assure you that no one else in that parking lot did (save for the elderly, pregnant, or anyone who can’t be hot for medical reasons).

I want PHX to put up signs listing reasons not to idle. Okay, it’s presently four o’clock in the afternoon here and it’s 109 degrees. If you’re waiting for someone at the airport now, I understand that it’s not practical to turn off the air conditioning. I get that. At night, or all day the other eight months of the year, I say turn off the car!

Anyway, I’m doing research on idling, and there is plenty of information out there from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy, but it all refers to trucks idling. Wow. I can’t find any government sponsored passenger car idling statistics. That seems bizarre. Aren’t individual drivers more likely to make a simple change? I can understand going after the big trucks, but I don’t think we should ignore the rest of the vehicles.

I did find something that the city of Seattle published to help stop idling while waiting for drawbridges. Let me know if you’ve seen any good sources out there for anti-idling ideas. I’ll keep searching.

I’ll let you know what happens. Maybe I’ll get to post a picture of the sign at the PHX waiting area!

In case you’re interested, here are the highlights from the Seattle poster. These facts work everywhere.

True or False:

• Idling uses more gas than shutting off your passenger car or light duty truck and restarting it
  True. Idling for more than 30 seconds burns more gas than it takes to restart the engine.[1]

• Prolonged idling reduces the operating life of a vehicle’s engine
  True. A study comparing idling verses restarting an engine found that the benefits of turning off a car or light duty truck far outweigh the costs associated with restarting it.

• You should warm up your engine before driving your passenger car
  False. The best way to warm up an engine is to drive it.[2]

• If you spend at least 5 minutes idling each day, it can cost you an average of $35 a year in gas

True. Turning off your engine if idling more than 30 seconds saves gas and reduces air pollution.[3]

• Cars and trucks are major sources of air pollution. They contribute to global warming and other air quality problems
  True. Motor vehicles (on-road, off-road, cars, trucks and boats) contribute over 50% of the greenhouse gases in our region. Preliminary calculations suggest that if all passenger car drivers shut off their engines during the opening and closing of Seattle’s seven drawbridges the benefits would include:

– Avoiding over 1800 tons of greenhouse gases per year from entering the air

– Avoiding 150 tons of air toxics per year

– Saving Seattle drivers over 50,000 gallons of gasoline a year[4]

• For every gallon of gas burned, twenty pounds of carbon dioxide enters our atmosphere
  True. Carbon dioxide is one of the major “greenhouse gases” that contributes to global warming.

• Vehicle emissions contribute to health problems
  True. Air pollution from vehicle exhaust contributes to asthma, chronic bronchitis and other lung problems.[5]