Educate Sudburians about anti-idling: activist
An environmental group is hoping Sudbury's anti-idling bylaw is just delayed, and not dead.
City councillors changed their minds on the proposed bylaw earlier this week.
They voted to send it back to the drawing board to be re-worked.
The councillors said they said they were prompted by phone calls and emails from concerned residents.
Naomi Grant, a spokesperson with the Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury, said she believes there was a lot of misunderstanding about the bylaw.
"It's always a good thing for citizens to be engaging with their councillors and the decisions that affect them," she said Perhaps we would have liked to have seen things handled differently, [such as] a public explanation of what the bylaw was."
The bylaw would have limited vehicle idling to one minute.
But it also included a long list of exceptions, including warming up your car on a cold day.
Grant said she hopes the anti-idling bylaw will eventually make it through the clouds of misunderstanding.
"Of course we always think about the superstack in Sudbury when we think about air quality, and that's important, but vehicle emissions are one of the biggest contributors to poor air quality in Sudbury," she said.
The city's operations committee will again discuss how to curb idling in Sudbury at its meeting next month.
Idling: Myths vs. Facts
Source: Greatersudbury.ca
Myth: Idling is good for your vehicle because it warms up the engine prior to driving.
Fact: Idling can actually be hard on the engine because fuel combustion is incomplete and some fuel residues condense on cylinder walls.
Myth: Individual unnecessary vehicle idling does not contribute to the problem of climate change.
Fact: Carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas that is contributing to climate change, is a natural by-product of burning gasoline. Each litre of gasoline used produces about 2.4 kg of carbon dioxide. So everytime you start the engine your contributing to the problem.
Myth: Idling is necessary on cold winter days that do not exceed minus 30 degrees Celsius to ensure that all of the vehicle's components are warm.
Fact: Many components of the vehicle including the wheel bearings, tires and suspension system will warm up only when the vehicle is moving. No more than 30 seconds of idling is needed to get the oil circulating through the engine. Only approximately 3 minutes is necessary is extremely cold weather.
Myth: Idling is only a concern in the winter.
Fact: Idling is a problem all year-round. A recent study revealed that on any given day in August, Canadians idle their vehicles for a combined total of more than 46 million minutes per day. This is equivalent to one vehicle idling consistently for 89 years.
Myth: Frequently restarting a vehicle rather than letting it idle, is hard on the vehicle's starter and battery.
Fact: Studies have shown that restarting the engine numerous times has little impact on components such as the battery and starter motor.