To increasingly want to challenge idling car drivers?

[whataboutbob]

I live in London and like many city dwellers am acutely aware of air pollution. I’m getting more and more intolerant of drivers who sit in their cars, engine running and no visible intention of moving on. I came home the other day to find a Land Rover parked outside my flat, driver mobile phone in hand, hazard lights on (why?) and engine running
This went on for about half an hour . I really wanted to challenge himbut wimped out, partly because he had a toddler in the back seat and would probably have told me he needed the heating on because of that. I see that idling is illegal, but can a member of the public challenge someone/ ask them to turn off?Obviously I’d do it politely and have done so in the past, with mixed results. Anyone else feel the same?

Some years ago there was an AA or RAC van opposite my London flat, engine running, lights on, might have attended a job but certainly wasn't working at the time. After 20 minutes I phoned the company as the engine was still chugging away. He drove off soon after.

If I see someone sitting in a car with the engine running I go and look at them, look at the reg. walk by, then back again or stand outside my house looking until they leave. They know why, and are usually playing with their phone or stuffing their face with a burger.

Yes, I do. Every day I walk past a car parked outside a central London hospital, of all places, with its engine running. Hopefully now ULEZ has come in people will be more aware or simply wont be thee at all.

Challenge them. Make leaflets to hand out showing can be fined.

Someone waits outside the school near me for over 30 minutes with the engine ticking over. It makes me so angry. I'm thinking of sticking a leaflet on her windscreen.

@whataboutbob I am pleased to know that I am not the only person who is fed up with idling car engines.

I haven't yet, but will be chuffed when it becomes socially acceptable to do so. Sometimes my work leads me to spend all day up a ladder in busy streets, and the other day I was right next to a loading bay. Some twatbadger had the engine running on his van for the best part of ninety minutes. Then the traffic warden came and gave him a ticket for overstaying. I was

I challenged thy man yesterday and apologised and drove off

I challenge them. Idiots.

I do! I occasionally get this in my street. It creates noise and pollution.

I hate it.
I cycle from work and arrive home approx 15.20.
All along my road are parked cars with their fucking engines running. Polluting the air for the kids they purport to care for. Toddlers in buggies at exhaust level. Me in my back garden. Twice a day. I know it could be worse. But i feel like sticking a hosepipe on the exhaust and sticking it through their windows. Filthy, ignorant wastrels.

Ps. I have a car, but don't use it much. I don't idle outside homes.

I have seen men in vans from most widely known service companies sitting in our st engines running "keeping warm" for their entire lunch hour whilst on the job - it winds the hell out of me!

I've complained to the company if I see a van with doing it. Try it, Furry.
Hate it with a passion.

I see that idling is illegal - as I understand it 'idling' is leaving the car unattended with the engine running - ie popping back in doors waiting for the ice to clear. Or for no good purpose.

My car has an in built demister - how would expect me to drive it before the windscreen has cleared? blindly? down the road? I'm sat in it for two or three minutes on my drive with the blowers on to clear the inside.

You need to check your interpretation of the law, you're wrong on several counts.

Leaving an engine idling is an offence

"Stationary idling is an offence under section 42 of the Road Traffic Act 1988," says Jeanette Miller, managing director of Geoffrey Miller Solicitors.

The Act enforces rule 123 of the Highway Code, which states: "You must not leave a vehicle’s engine running unnecessarily while that vehicle is stationary on a public road."

Doing this can incur a £20 fixed-penalty fine under the Road Traffic (Vehicle Emissions) Regulations 2002. This goes up to £40 if unpaid within a given time frame.

But this is only imposed if the driver fails to turn off their engine when asked to do so by a marshal.

Of course, it doesn't mean you've got to cut your engine at every red light. You’re allowed to leave your engine running if you're stationary in traffic, diagnosing faults or defrosting your windshield.

I did this once. The driver rather aggressively said "thank you very much" (for letting him know he should switch off his engine) and seemed embarrassed. I found it painful. Not sure I'd bother again. I do hate it though, especially near schools.

Video and send to the council?

Keeping warm? Put your coat on ffs

I have seen men in vans from most widely known service companies sitting in our st engines running "keeping warm" for their entire lunch hour whilst on the job - it winds the hell out of me!

What are they supposed to do though if they're outside all day in December, etc when it's cold and are having a lunch break/sat in the van waiting for a colleague. They can't be expected to sit in near freezing temps all day?

I have more sympathy for such workers than I do for the idiots who go to the shop near me and leave a mate in the car while they're choosing food/fags/beer, engine running for ten minutes even in the summer so it's not like they're keeping warm!

What are they supposed to do though if they're outside all day in December, etc when it's cold and are having a lunch break/sat in the van waiting for a colleague.

If they can’t do their job without breaking the law they ought to think about their working conditions.

Nope. When I was 34 weeks pregnant with a baby I thought I was going to lose and having all sorts of complications I had someone slam on my windscreen because I was sat in the car with the air conditioning on. I had no other place I could be and it was 30 outside. It made me feel awful and I really didn't need the stress. So no, I don't police other people's behaviour because where does it stop? Their parenting? Their clothing choice?

People do it waiting to collect their kids right outside the school gates locally to us - exhaust straight into the playground and classrooms. Makes me rage.

But your "behaviour" is directly affecting them, blewbird. Leaving aside the noise irritation, more and more studies are revealing the devastating effects of air pollution on babies, children- and unborn babies, too. Yes, air pollution has been discovered to increase miscarriage rates, too. So, while you were sitting in your car being worried about your own unborn baby, you were directly putting the unborn babies of others at risk.

I just do not get how, in the UK, it is ever too hot or too cold to sit in your car with the engine off. if it's too hot- open the windows. If it's too cold- put a coat on.

If they can’t do their job without breaking the law they ought to think about their working conditions.

I doubt their employers give a shit. It's all very well saying "put your coat on". I used to have a van based job and it was grim in the winter. Ok driving between jobs as heater was on but when at a job for an hour or two or lunch time we did in the winter have the engine running to keep warm. And yes sometimes people rang my company to complain and the control room would ring me to tell me to switch the engine off. I'm like it's -5 and I'm going to freeze if I switch the engine off!

Blewbird if you can’t go out without breaking the law, don’t go out!

blewbird

On a public road, it indeed is illegal to sit in your car whilst keeping the engine running within the UK. The Highway Code states: 'You MUST NOT leave a parked vehicle unattended with the engine running or leave a vehicle engine running unnecessarily while that vehicle is stationary on a public road'.

www.drivingtesttips.biz/driving-tips/parked-with-engine-running.html