The Latest Dining Decorum? Idling Exhaust with Dessert in Downtown Halifax

I think you can judge a city’s commitment to addressing climate change by how the municipality deals with the ‘lowest hanging fruit’ available to them for carbon reduction: driver idling behavior and influencing citizens across the city to shut their cars and trucks off when they’re parked and it makes sense.

This is the truly big prize for influencing and engaging citizens on climate change across the city. In our medium size city alone (400,000 pop.) we have hundreds of thousands of fossil-fueled tailpipes roaming the jurisdiction generating 97,000 tons of CO2 while spending $84 million of our precious cash on exhaust. Imagine where this $84M could be used in our economy instead! https://docs.goidlefree.com/One-Citys-Idling-Habit-Deck

As someone who has been studying and codifying the behavioral science around idle reduction behavior modification for the past 17 years, I can say for certain that our collective unconscious behavior has reached a new level of regression just within the last year or two.

I am now seeing something truly disturbing; the integration of idling vehicles and outdoor dining facilities, as a ‘normal, natural thing.’ In other words, it is now not unusual to be dining on an outdoor patio in downtown Halifax with an idling vehicle maybe 6 feet away…for the whole meal! And its completely acceptable. ?

It’s not just any idling vehicle; it’s a vehicle that has been left to idle by its owner the whole time they are dining to ensure a ‘cool ride’ after dinner. It’s an hour-long idle (at least!) and hundreds of outdoor diners don’t seem to notice or mind one bit (I expect this individual’s idling habit to be at least 300 engine hours a year, say 600 Litres @ $1.65 = $990).

There’s another variation of this scene that plays itself out probably hundreds if not thousands of times daily across our city at fast food joints where the patron doesn’t even have to leave their car; the food is delivered through the window, and then the happy diner parks his vehicle and idles while enjoying his meal (windows rolled down, 19C?66F).

I understand completely how this idling psychology works because I used to be a heavy-medium idler myself (200 engine hours a year). What the drivers are thinking as they eat their chicken fingers (if they're thinking about it at all); “idling is no big deal” or “they’ve really cleaned up the emissions a lot so we don’t have to worry” or “restarts are bad, and idling like this is good for the vehicle.”

This is all false, and does not take into account recent headlines about fossil fuel air pollution; the impact it is having on our children outside of our schools, in our parking lots, at our daycare facilities, and now… At our outdoor dining facilities. Have you ever wondered why we have so many kids today with asthma inhalers..? Asthma is now an epidemic with four times its rate in the early 1960s.

Fossil fuel air pollution is responsible for 1 in 5 deaths worldwide: more than 8 million people died in 2018 from fossil fuel pollution, significantly higher than previous research suggested—meaning that air pollution from burning fossil fuels like coal and diesel was responsible for about 1 in 5 deaths worldwide.

In our North American car-centric, always-on, convenience at all costs society, outdated beliefs and behavior around idle management of 21st-century engines is literally now right next to our dining tables. And we are accepting it as a normal occurrence.

From my years of research and very close study of idling behavior, this is the net effect of what happens when politicians ignore their own idling policies, and operate hundreds of city vehicles while idling heavily in front of the public. The message city managers have been sending for years now in Halifax is “we’re not worried about idling and you shouldn’t worry about idling either. Bon appetite!”

Here’s GoGreen’s grade for sustainability and idle reduction for Halifax: F minus. Let me know what you think.

***

Check out our?CleanCities Deck .

Preview our curriculum.

Get your organization's fleet operations idle reduction strategy started with a limited time no-cost Idle Reduction Opportunity Assessment?

***

IDLE FREE for our kids??Behavior Modification. Certification. Branding.

Fleets cut costs. Look like heroes.?GoIDLEFREE.com

#transportation #sustainability #fleetmanagement