Reading Borough Council plans to fine drivers....

*Turns engine off after 59 seconds*
*Traffic moves forward 12 feet*
*Turns engine on*
*Turns engine off after 59 seconds*
*Traffic moves forward 12 feet*
 
The law already exists anyway. Highway code 123. But allows you to leave it running in traffic. It also uses the word "unnecessarily" so using the heater would require the engine to be on.
 
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From the article:

The idea is to focus on hotspot areas where we commonly see engines left idling, like outside schools, near construction sites or at taxi ranks


Although enforcement come across as silly, there is logic in those three categories.
 
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If busy cities want to cut pollution and improve air quality then charge or mega tax the millions of diesel cars that people are buying to do 15 minute journies to work in!
When is this stupid country going to properly deal with the fact diesels are what is killing people prematurely and badly polluting densely populated city's. Instead they are reward people buying diesels with low car tax :(
Reading coming up with this idea is so far from solving the problem it's unreal
 
Bunka said:
Good luck enforcing that
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Quite. And since there will be no enforcement of it, it's as good as useless. Taxi drivers will still idle at taxi ranks for half an hour at a time.

robj20 said:
Rev it every 59 seconds.

What about people with RX8 or 7s, that can flood if you then then off while cold.
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Unless you're driving your RX7 onto a building site, or you plan to use it as a taxi at a taxi rank or your school run consists of 2 minutes down the road - you really should not have to worry.

Really, I generally hate councils as I think most of their decisions come from a committee who lives in some idealistic world, but anything that helps contribute to cleaner air has got my blessing.

However, they should not have brought fines into this at all. They should have realised that as soon as the papers pick it up, it'll turn into another "Council wants to fine easy target motorists for minor infractions to make up their financial deficit". It should have only been about education with a few "Did you know?" signs being situated at these "hot spots" placing the emphasis on how much it can save drivers in fuel by turning their engines off instead of idling them for a long time.

A lot of drivers still think that idling their car uses up less fuel than turning the engine off (when warm).
 
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Just because there is little enforcement, I don't think it will be useless. The threat of monetary penalties does motivate a lot of people. Especially when it is such a simple thing to do with no real adverse effect on people.

People break speed limits because they enjoy driving faster or simply would like to make progress faster. In a lot of cases there is no benefit to leaving the engine running.
 
Dav4 said:
If busy cities want to cut pollution and improve air quality then charge or mega tax the millions of diesel cars that people are buying to do 15 minute journies to work in!
Click to expand...

Yea, they should all buy petrol cars instead because pure water comes out the back of those.

There are significant issues with earlier diesel cars but unless you want to retrospectively punish everyone who simply did what the government encouraged them to do then there is nothing that could or should be done about them - Euro V cars are better, Euro VI cars are considerably better, so the test of time will rid us of the Euro IV and older diesels and the problem will significantly reduce.
 
Skillmister said:
*Turns engine off after 59 seconds*
*Traffic moves forward 12 feet*
*Turns engine on*
*Turns engine off after 59 seconds*
*Traffic moves forward 12 feet*
Click to expand...

Not to mention the complete congestion that will be caused when older cars end up refusing to start.

It would be ideal if they could design the ends of these roads that have a gigantic conveyor belt on it. Lets say it holds 30 cars (enough to get across a set of lights before they go green) cars drive onto the conveyor and turn off their engines. The conveyor then moves forwards in the flow of traffic.

The other option is to extend the timings on traffic lights so that it actually makes it worthwhile to switch your engine off. At least on certain main roads, you should build up a consistent steady flow of traffic.
 
Stupid idea

Older cars are not designed as stop/start cars...

Cars with Stop/start have loads of sensors for knowing when it ok to stop there engine and when to restart it (One the main things being battery voltage level but there a whole list of other stuff they check)
Plus am not sure if a normal starter motor and flywheel ring gear could even stand up to everyday stop/start as they where not designed for this amount of usage..

How would a driver know when his battery going to go flat to start while he has the lights, stereo, heater, heated seats, GPS, dashcam, heated windshield, Heated rear window etc etc is on
 
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chaparral said:
Stupid idea

Older cars are not designed as stop/start cars...

Cars with Stop/start have loads of sensors for knowing when it ok to stop there engine and when to restart it (One the main things being battery voltage level but there a whole list of other stuff they check)
Plus am not sure if a normal starter motor and flywheel ring gear could even stand up to everyday stop/start as they where not designed for this amount of usage..

How would a driver know when his battery going to go flat to start while he has the lights, stereo, heater, heated seats, GPS, dashcam, heated windshield, Heated rear window etc etc is on
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Well since it's purely about reducing pollution, and nothing to do with generating money, the council will have plenty of recovery vans on standby ready to be despatched at a moment's notice and get you back on the road within minutes (for free of course)... Right?

Can't see how they would monitor/enforce this, just creep forward very slowly when the car in front of you moves = not stationary
 
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chaparral said:
How would a driver know when his battery going to go flat to start while he has the lights, stereo, heater, heated seats, GPS, dashcam, heated windshield, Heated rear window etc etc is on
Click to expand...

How often are you stationary for over a minute whilst waiting outside something?

This isnt about turning the engine off for 12 seconds at red lights.
 
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