Gentlemen, stop your engines: Idling now illegal in Kentville

[Praxius]

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1079895.html

KENTVILLE — Town council here has decided not to sit idly by on the issue of global warming.

Kentville is the first municipality in Atlantic Canada to pass a bylaw banning the idling of motor vehicles within its boundaries.

A similar bylaw is in place in more than four dozen other places across the country.

The new law, passed this week, makes it illegal to leave a motor vehicle idling for more than three minutes in town.

Exceptions include emergency vehicles on a call, armoured cars, vehicles involved in work in which a running engine is required to provide power for auxiliary equipment, and vehicles that may be held up in traffic by an emergency, funeral, tie-ups or weather.

Drivers are also allowed to idle their vehicles to provide power or heat for defogging or de-icing a windshield when no reasonable alternative is available.

Coun. Eric Bolland, who helped push for the bylaw, says that means turning on the car for several minutes is OK when it’s encrusted in ice, but not when there is only a thin film of frost that can be removed with a scraper.

Penalties range from a minimum fine of $150 to a maximum of $10,000.

Mr. Bolland said council is optimistic that residents and visitors will embrace the anti-idling ethic. He said the bylaw is meant less as an enforcement measure than as an educational tool and a means of promoting good health and a cleaner environment.

Hey, I have a wild idea.... if you want to promote good health and educate about having a cleaner environment..... how about you put out ads and commercials telling people the benifits of it..... rather then fining the crap out of everybody and forcing them to do as you wish?

"Measures to maintain good air quality and limit pollution are important for our overall good environmental and human health," Mr. Bolland said. "This is especially true for the very young and our elderly citizens, who are most susceptible to health conditions impacted by poor air quality."

Piss poor excuse.... I grew up just fine, and environmental protection was garbage when I was growing up..... this is just more politicians shoving their morals down our throats, just like the stupid smoking by-laws.

He said that close to 10 per cent of children in the province suffer from asthma, and as many as one in five have respiratory problems.

Wow, and have they even bothered to look into what's the worst emitters of the pollution in the air? Sure it might be vehicles in the bigger cities, but in a town like Kentville.... I'd say it's the factories and NS Power's coal plants which do the worst offending of air quality.

But it's far more easier to get money from your average citizen.

Mr. Bolland said the move also makes good economic sense because of high fuel prices.

Then let the people themselves determine that you nut bag.

He said the most common cases of idling in town involve delivery vehicles and people waiting outside a store while someone else shops.

And cars are usually left on, because in the winter time, it's fk'n cold and waiting out in a car after about 5-10 mins get's pretty damn cold.

And in the summer.... how about sitting in the sun on a 30 degree afternoon with no air conditioning?

Mr. Bolland said he expects the law will make people more conscious of the problem and stop idling, much as the new cellphone law has reduced the number of people talking on the phone while driving.

It doesn't make anybody aware of anything except that they will be fined. While I agree with the cell phone ban, it's certainly not the same as this retarded concept.

He said recent surveys showed there is overwhelming support for plans to reduce vehicle idling.

Opinions?

 

[#juan]

Have everyone buy a hybrid. As far as I know, all hybrids shut off the engine automatically. :roll:

 

[Zzarchov]

The law seems to apply to all vehicles, not just gas ones.

As for Asthma, I know a leading cause of Asthma among kids is cockroaches actually. Though that might be different up here in the north.

 

[Socrates the Greek]

The title of this thread excludes women.....WHY.......

 

[Zzarchov]

It also excludes Peasants, and Esquires and above.

 

[Socrates the Greek]

It also excludes Peasants, and Esquires and above.

Oh great.................

 

[karrie]

wow.... talk about taking the humor out of a play on words.

Anyway, back to the article itself.

It' something our family's been doing for ages. And it drives me nuts to sit and listen to my neighbors bitch about high fuel prices when you see three vehicles idling outside of their house for a half hour every morning. I can't imagine it makes government any happier when they have to sit and listen to people bitch about how gov ought to step in and cap prices, knowing that most of them waste fuel like it's water, and just want to be able to carry on like nothing's changed in the world supply.

I don't know what the answer is Prax, but, I can tell you that the average person ISN'T on this forum, absorbing the articles and research about global petro supply, OR city air quality. The average person is clueless and self absorbed and wasteful, and doesn't think twice about sitting outside the school playground in the crush of cars, idling for 20 mins waiting for Suzy. There are SO many more cars now that when we were growing up. It's freaking insane. And yes, like it or not it's showing in our kids.

Is the answer mandating common sense? I doubt it. But, what do you do when the populace seems to resoundingly lack it?

 

[Praxius]

See, for myself, unless I'm only going to sit for a few seconds, or even a minute, I will let the car run, but usually once I stop and I'm not on the streets, I turn the car off.

I have no problem turning off the car to save on gas and even the environment...... but I don't need the government to dictate to me what I should be doing, and then focing fines down my and everybody else's throats.

People just need to get some education and eventually people will do the right thing.

Not everybody goes on the internet, but everybody still watches TV.... well.... those who matter anyways :twisted: so take a couple of time slots of some of their other commercials they have been using since the 80's (such as the multiple glasses of beer on the dashboard as you drive downtown) and pop one or two commercials about the benifits of not idling in certain situations or as often as possible.

The average Joe and Jane may not be up to date with all the latest Star Trek gadgets, but they still know their tv who brought shows like it to them..... even if they hated them.

 

[AmberEyes]

The problem, of course, is that "common" sense really isn't common at all. In fact, I've seen many many people idle their cars for longer than 3 minutes. Want to know what it's like walking down a busy road during rush hour with asthma? I dealt with it as a kid and it isn't fun having to stop to take a breath, all because the people on the road next to you refuse to turn off their poisonous vehicles.

I'd be great if people could do the right thing. Unfortunately, most do not. This is why we need people to tell us what to do, since most of us can't think for ourselves. :-|

 

[darkbeaver]

The problem, of course, is that "common" sense really isn't common at all. In fact, I've seen many many people idle their cars for longer than 3 minutes. Want to know what it's like walking down a busy road during rush hour with asthma? I dealt with it as a kid and it isn't fun having to stop to take a breath, all because the people on the road next to you refuse to turn off their poisonous vehicles.

I'd be great if people could do the right thing. Unfortunately, most do not. This is why we need people to tell us what to do, since most of us can't think for ourselves. :-|

"Common sense really isn't common at all". That's becoming increasingly true as the common itself shrinks. We have all become individualized to the point that the sense of everything is more and more fragmented.

 

[AmberEyes]

It's rather frightening. "Community" doesn't seem to exist in most places these days. I grew up knowing the people around me (and that wasn't that long ago!), but now I find I don't know anybody. I haven't even spoken with my neighbours once, and we've been here for about 4 months. Nobody seems to care anymore. *sigh*

 

[Praxius]

It's rather frightening. "Community" doesn't seem to exist in most places these days. I grew up knowing the people around me (and that wasn't that long ago!), but now I find I don't know anybody. I haven't even spoken with my neighbours once, and we've been here for about 4 months. Nobody seems to care anymore. *sigh*

Bah, don't feel bad. I've been living where I am now for about 4-5 years now.... I don't know anybody. Those I did, I soon enough stopped knowing for various reasons...... now I just don't care.

I got people at work I talk and hang out with, and quite honestly, I've heard from parents, family, older friends etc. that as you get older, your situation on how you obtain friends changes..... first in your neighborhood when growing up, then school, then college/university, then you're too busy to find friends after splitting from any of those, because now you have to make ends meet..... and so you gotta get a job and work to pay the bills.

Then it's a few months or a year later and you relize that there's not many around you anymore..... they all went and done their own things, just as you have...... and you don't see anybody near where you live that you can relate to, so now what?

Most I have talked to have said most of the friends they know now, they worked with... and that's just sorta how it goes most times. Sure there are exceptions in every case where you have a few friends outside of work, but like how school was easy due to the amount of time you spent there..... work is similar.

 

[Zzarchov]

I also avoid my neighbours.

Why would I want to know people I have nothing in common with except geographt and that I can hear their fights and "anti-fights" *cough* on quiet nights.

Would seem to be akward at best, and frankly, I don't have that much free time, id rather spend it with friends and family.

 

[AmberEyes]

I also avoid my neighbours.

Why would I want to know people I have nothing in common with except geographt and that I can hear their fights and "anti-fights" *cough* on quiet nights.

Would seem to be akward at best, and frankly, I don't have that much free time, id rather spend it with friends and family.

Maybe if you bothered to take the time to get to know them, they'd be part of that "friends and family" you speak of.

 

[Praxius]

Maybe if you bothered to take the time to get to know them, they'd be part of that "friends and family" you speak of.

Well as for myself, I live in an apartment building, and although I imagine everybody wants that Friends or Seinfield friendliness.... but that's not how it usually goes, and quite simply, I don't mind having friends around of course, I just don't want them living right next or beside or around me all the time, knowing what I'm doing or not doing.

If something goes downhill and they and I get all pissy for whatever reason, then they probably will know a few things they probably shouldn't, which perhaps the landlord might eventually learn and then I can risk more then just some trivial friendship, I could lose my place of living..... and of course it can get worse then that.

Living in your own house is of course a different matter.

 

[Zzarchov]

Maybe if you bothered to take the time to get to know them, they'd be part of that "friends and family" you speak of.

If I have anything in common with them, I will eventually meet them regardless of their geography.

In the end a neighbour is someone who lives beside me. Why should I spend the time getting to know them over any other person in this world?

Is the person who lives on the other side of town somehow less worth my time than the person next door?