Idling: Socially unacceptable?

Soldato
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22 Nov 2006
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23,304
He also forgot to mention PM aswell which is an element to consider when make articulating an point on pollution. The problem lies when you are simple regurgitating stuff - it’s like the internet Daily Nash report.

NoX binds with other things to form the dangerous PM, which then lingers at ground level. That's why cities want to get rid of diesels...
 
Caporegime
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Here
Odd as PM is carbon based and NOx has no carbon in.

they are different emissions and hence measured separately.
Stuff like EGR keeps NOx minimal at idle anyway. It’s formed at high temperatures and pressures.

The worse thing for city PM emissions is hard acceleration and braking (tyre wear and brake dust also get worse). But excessive idling is obviously not helping things
 
Soldato
OP
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Not quite full lungs as only about 4% co2 is emitted. Humans will die if they breathe in air with too much co2.

Obviously I’m being dramatic but government tax on co2 isn’t the only thing driving emissions down. The EURO emissions standards do too but obviously nasher is ignoring these.

Fair point, I'm surprised how little co2 is in the air we breathe out but I guess we don't process all the oxygen which we breathe in, which iirc forms about 20% of air.
 
Soldato
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I'm all for stamping out pointless idling. Normally some twonk in a knackered old diesel which smells like its coal fired while they sit there gormless staring at their phone with their mouth open.

Makes me want to stick a banana up their tail pipe ;)
 
Soldato
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Near Cheltenham
According to the local news people are being encouraged to film people idling and send it into the council to examine and issue a fine.

Now, it's my understanding that if you're spotted idling unnecessarily and refuse to switch off when asked by a traffic warden (and presumably the police) you can be fined £20. So if the council receive a video of me idling filmed by a random member of the public how can they fine me?

Also, what's the definition of unnecessarily? Waiting for someone on a cold day and running the engine to keep the heater going to help an elderly passenger or an infant stay warm, for example, is necessary in my opinion.

Also, if the car doesn't have stop start technology and the beefier starting and charging system to support this practice I imagine there would be a rise in breakdowns, slowing rush hour traffic even more.

The reporter was speaking to mums walking their kids to school and complaining about big lorries belching out fumes, but do HGVs even have stop start? I'd be inclined to think that once you get one of those big mothers going you'd keep it running, again a starting failure would cause chaos.

This just doesn't seem to make sense.

I think from an education point of view, there is nothing wrong with at least switching your engine off for the first 5 - 10 minutes (unless excessively cold/hot outside). Outside of this you do have the battery to think about, manufacturers will turn of infotainment systems after 10-20 minutes typically as they think it'll negatively impact on the state of charge so surely that is a trigger for necessarily switching the engine on? At that point you have to idle for a few minutes to ensure the energy taken to start the car is replenished, so maybe 5+ minutes of idling.. before switching off again.

I usually will switch off for periods of time because it is reasonable to do so, but will start the engine periodically and will idle for a few minutes to replenish the battery.. Unless they make sitting in the car illegal, or listening to music whilst waiting illegal, then surely some common sense has to apply..

When (rarely) picking the kids up, I pretty much do the 10 minutes off, 5 minutes on if I'm having to wait around, but then I do barely any miles in my M3 and sometimes might not use it for a week or two, in which case the battery is always a bit depleted and needs a bit of care applied.
 
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