The Idle Idol

Growing up with frigid Great Lakes’ winters, it was a customary practice to warm up before setting off to work or school. In fact, it was a social faux-pas if we didn’t. Not only did we flat-landers require a morning jumpstart to battle the sub-zero temperatures and relentless wind but our cars and trucks also needed some time to come out of hibernation, in order to take us to the next heated structure of our day. Or so we thought.

Warming up our cars in the morning might make the first few minutes of our commute a bit more comfortable but at what expense? What about big rigs, tow trucks, 18-wheelers, "dually" pickups, delivery vans and other diesel powered vehicles? Isn’t it necessary to let their engines have time to warm up before driving them? The short and fast answer is no. As a matter of fact, the way the EPA, State DOT outfits and other agencies see it, engine idling is having an unfavorable effect on our air quality and oil reserves, climate change and our bank accounts.

Every year, Americans spend upwards of $2 million on fuel that is used solely for idling. That number doesn’t count the idling that occurs at stop lights or other necessary idling situations. We’re talking about idling to warm up our cars on chilly winter mornings, defrost the windshield, wait for a burger at the drive-thru or to "loosen" up the diesel for better performance. Those two operations yield an astonishing 78 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere (4% of the total annual CO2 emissions), nearly 1 million tons of nitrous oxides and 10,000 tons of particulate matter every year; the latter being the most overlooked criteria air pollutant. Particulate matter (PM) accumulates on our stuff and in our water supplies. Idling generates more PM than driving and is the sole reason why some cities offer street sweeping services. Where does that PM go after being collected from streets and gutters? Yup, you guessed it, straight to the landfill. But that’s a topic for a later date.


Sure, running our engines to warm up the car can do the job and sure, idling our diesel trucks will heat up the engine block but neither are necessary practices. It is a myth that driving a cold vehicle is hard on the engine. It is a myth that you can efficiently warm up your vehicle’s interior and defrost your windshield by letting it run in the driveway and watch from your kitchen window. It is a myth that diesel engines must idle before being driven, especially for 5 minutes or longer (new winter blend diesel fuel is designed to be run cold).  Two facts that stick in my head are that iiling increases engine wear and tear which leads to decreased fuel economy and idling for 10 seconds or longer uses more fuel than shutting the engine off and restarting.

So why are we allowing ourselves to continue to get zero MPG? I blame it on habit. The good news is that like rules, habits were meant to be broken. And with the growing number of vehicles on the road and young drivers-to-be, it appears that engine idling is a habit that we Americans ought to kibosh. Talking to folks who have either successfully quit smoking or over-eating credit their achievement, in part, to simply replacing the bad habit with a more positive action.

This year, I am going to do my darnedest to use less gas in my car and I am going to start with breaking the idle habit. My effort in the matter has so far been focused to:


• Manually scraping the frost off the windows in the morning rather than running the defroster.
• Turning the engine off while “just running into the store”
• Turning the engine off while waiting for freight trains and Los Angeles freeway traffic jams to clear.
 To date, I’ve noticed a noteworthy mileage increase (an average of .9 MPG) every time I fill up. If that isn’t reason enough there are health concerns, noise pollution, unpleasant odors and other unappealing attributes associated with idling that only further the cause.