Louisville Mojo: American Idle

If idle hands are the devil's workshop, then an idling engine is surely the devil's ginormous, ugly, surreal oil refinery glistening against the night sky.

In modern engines, idling for as little as 10 seconds is a net waste of gas. That means, yes, that if you're inching forward in a carpool line picking your child up from school, you could stop the car each time you move forward and improve air quality, extend the earth's resources and save yourself money at the gas pump.

You'd think sensible people would file that under the category of "good to know," especially since, as we discussed yesterday, children don't walk to school anymore.

But judging by some of the early reaction to a CJ story about the mayor considering a proposal to restrict idling, you'd think idling was a cherished activity along the lines of eating apple pie and saluting the flag.

It's dumb, idiotic, a hardship on "honest" people and promoted by "wackos" like PETA, according to some of those responding. (Which, I'm not defending PETA, but what do they have to do with this?) It also, they say, would be unenforceable and, yet, enforced so rigorously as to generate lots of money for the greedy mayor and his greedy friends.

It would lead to anarchy, because people would murder each other while police are distracted by writing up tickets for idling.

It's hard to argue with all those well-reasoned points, which remind me of the well-reasoned arguments against requiring seat belts and car seats and banning drunk driving. And, oh yeah, setting speed limits.

(One little fringe benefit of growing older is that you realize that people have just been having the exact same arguments forever, a fact that is simultaneously reassuring and depressing.)

What the people making the high-minded arguments choose to ignore is the actual facts presented in the story.

One eye-grabbing quote:

One study by the air district completed last year examined Norton Elementary School on Brownsboro Road as parents lined up to pick up their children. It found levels of benzene, a human carcinogen found in gasoline and car exhaust, shot up as cars idled in queue.

Here's a question: Why do you want to defend a practice that wastes money, wastes resources and puts poison in the air?

The story also noted that anti-idling laws exist in 100 cities or states so far, with no reported increase in communist party membership. (Ok, I made up the last part, but come on.)

I don't think it's a huge stretch of the imagination to think that a well-publicized law against idling would get a pretty high compliance rate in places like the Norton Elementary car pool line, without a serious diversion of resources from murder investigations.

But whatevs.

If you don't like the idea of having a law about idling cars, here's an idea: You could easily make it unnecessary by: turning off your car.

Public Domain Pictures.net

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Rick Redding tue nov 17 2009 at 10:37 am ·


	darn right. and all those parents could also make their kids ride the bus instead of wasting their time and gas picking them up in cars.

GtownGuy tue nov 17 2009 at 11:36 am ·


	Either ban drive-thru windows or charge a huge annual licensing fee. I should not be FORCED to breathe and see the pollutants & fumes spewed into our air by lazy or arrogant or just-plain-dumb gas- or diesel-wasting disrespectful individuals. Idling in front of my house actually disrupts my reception of over-the-air TV reception - which makes me crankier than normal. YES - I WALKED to school, except in the most inclement weather. In fact, I also WALKED HOME FOR LUNCH for over 4 years at my first (neighborhood!) elementary school.

chuck tue nov 17 2009 at 2:12 pm ·


	Beverly, it's so simple. If you could only see through those rose-colored, Janis Joplin glasses of yours you would understand... This is 'Murica! And in 'Murica, we do what we want. And more to the point, we don't have to listen to any of this dumb environmental bullshit put out by a socialist government intent on taking away my guns, and pass me another big mac, thankyouverymuch. God gave us the earth to do with as we please and damn it, I'm going to shit on as much of it as possible before my time is up. Got it, you damn hippie? ;-) Best, - C

VeggieMomster tue nov 17 2009 at 3:39 pm ·


	Oh, the LOLs at Chuck's comment... He essentially said what I was going to, with much more glorious sarcasm. There's an infectious sense of entitlement in, um, "'Murica", and as long as we pay for something, we think we can do with it whatever we like. We constantly waste water, electricity, food, and gas. We're richer than we realize, we waste with reckless abandon, and then whine about the cost of living. We don't respect the things we buy, the money we earn, or the planet that has to first sustain us, then sustain all of our waste. Essentially, we're all wading in our own waste. Go hippies!

Steve Magruder thu nov 19 2009 at 8:47 pm ·


	The best argument against it is that this idea, while seemingly logical, is also a case of government overreach if law enforcement or IPL is involved. All the people who complain about government getting all into their lives would actually be given a golden example to hold up, and this would negatively affect our ability to have government work on much more critical matters. I think most would be sanguine with an all-out education effort, which would also be much less expensive to administer.

Beverly Bartlett fri nov 20 2009 at 3:58 pm ·


	That is a good point and well-stated, Stevietheman, but it seems like if we require people to have tail-lights and mufflers, we could also put other sensible restrictions on motorists without people freaking out about it. (Also, I like to use the word "motorists"!)

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