To ask why people leave their engine running?

[Idontlikecheesecake]

I hate seeing people sitting in the cars, on their phone and the engine is running. Why do it? Do they not realise the climate is in crisis? And it’s wasting their fuel thus wasting their money. I walked through the car park at work today and I must have seen at least 4 cars with their engines running and the drivers were just sat on their phones. I was tempted to knock on some of their windows and tell them to turn the engine off, but I imagine that would be unreasonable (would it???). I genuinely want to know why people do it?

[quote Henio]@Feminist10101
But those things do affect the air, this post was originally about the climate crisis not the air you're breathing in immediately.
Areoplanes? Look how much more fuel they use than cars. Importing food? More fuel again. All those things contribute, you can't moan and complain about one type of behaviour if you're contributing in other ways. Even hairspray pollutes the air so if you use that you're contributing[/quote]
I don’t use hairspray actually. Nor do I fly much. I definitely don’t fly to work, thus requiring my cold plane to sit idling on my drive because I can’t deal with waiting a few mins for it to warm up.

Heating/aircon? I often turn on my car whilst i sort out music (Spotify), need the car running to link up my phone to audio. There are many other things that ppl do that are more damaging to the environment. Stop eating beef!

Nah.. what I do isn’t illegal. Stop being a nosy old bat and mind your own business.

It wouldn’t be illegal for me to sack everyone with less than 2 years service at work tomorrow, but it would be a pretty dickish thing to do. Don’t you agree?

@Feminist10101
Not attacking you personally btw, just pointing out a lot of people on here are being hypocrites about this issue. I don't leave my car running to heat it up or cool it down, but if I have my engine running for whatever reason I wouldn't appreciate someone tapping my window and lecturing me if they've just been on a flight to spain or eaten bananas flown in from the Carribbean

I have cars/vans park up outside my house all the time day and night and the selfish inconsiderate twats sit there on tickover for ages. It does my head in.

It wouldn’t be illegal for me to sack everyone with less than 2 years service at work tomorrow, but it would be a pretty dickish thing to do. Don’t you agree?

Your call. I wouldn’t care as its none of my business what you do with your staff.

Leave your car idling on your drive to warm up. Pretty good chance of getting it stolen. #hopeful

@Potterpotterpotter

It wouldn’t be illegal for me to sack everyone with less than 2 years service at work tomorrow, but it would be a pretty dickish thing to do. Don’t you agree?

Your call. I wouldn’t care as its none of my business what you do with your staff.

I suspect the patients might care. Many of whom would be there for treatment for lung cancer. Which I’m reasonably sure isn’t helped by excess traffic pollution. 🤔

I have done it a couple of times for a few minutes if I have got unbearably hot or cold but I try to minimise it and it’s wrong I know.

@JayAlfredPrufrock

Leave your car idling on your drive to warm up. Pretty good chance of getting it stolen. #hopeful

I have gates on my drive and live in a village so the chances are probably less then 1% and I’m happy to take the risk 😂

I suspect the patients might care. Many of whom would be there for treatment for lung cancer. Which I’m reasonably sure isn’t helped by excess traffic pollution. 🤔

Don’t do it then or line up new staff before getting rid of the old😂

A modern car engine idling uses very little fuel.

It would make more sense if you diverted your interest to policing other people's unnecessary car trips.

Maybe start by lecturing your neighbours every time they get out of the car with too few groceries. Leave shaming letters on the cars at school pick up that come from a walkable distance.

Think big, OP, you could save us all if you really dedicate yourself to Righteousness.

It's very, very annoying. I had to wait in the car park of minor injuries whilst DD had a wrist X-ray and the car opposite us kept the engine idling for nearly an hour. It was a warm day, but the driver was sitting with his car door open so even if he was running the air con, what was the point?! In the end I had to get out to say something because the noise was giving me a serious headache.

Just as I got out the car, all riled up, DD appeared in the car park and the guy was spared my wrath

(Disclaimer: it would have been a rather polite wrath. I was riled up, but I'm not rude.)

@cologne4711 I think you’ll find that almost 30% of greenhouse gas emissions comes from the production of electricity, so by having a home that does not require electricity, in that it is entirely self-sufficient power-wise and is entirely green, that it does balance. More or less.

I agree OP.

Although annoyingly my (all?) Model of BMW can't check the oil without doing a computer check of the level as there is no dipstick. So I have to leave my engine running for 5-10 mins to check oil level (my car goes a bit crazy and questions if there's oil in it sometimes). I wish I had known that before buying!!

@JanewaysBun you’d have honestly not bought a BMW, a thirsty car that runs with a high-powered combustion engine, because very, very occasionally you have to leave it running to check the oil? Give over. All cars need to have been run to check the oil, anyway. 👍🏻 Enjoy your car!

I NEVER do this; even when picking up a friend I turn the engine off. Cars do not take that long to warm up/cool down. It takes about one minute in my car and it’s bearable until then.

Some of you are very entitled.

It's interesting how people always find a way to justify their anti-social behaviour. Idling engines is selfish and bad for the environment.

Dicks. I suppose the plus side is they are not checking their phone whilst driving.

@Idontlikecheesecake

I hate seeing people sitting in the cars, on their phone and the engine is running. Why do it? Do they not realise the climate is in crisis? And it’s wasting their fuel thus wasting their money. I walked through the car park at work today and I must have seen at least 4 cars with their engines running and the drivers were just sat on their phones. I was tempted to knock on some of their windows and tell them to turn the engine off, but I imagine that would be unreasonable (would it???). I genuinely want to know why people do it?

Maybe not so applicable in this situation which is probbaly more just "they didnt think when they unexpectedly got a call saying dont forgetx or we need y"

But you are meant to bring your engine and oil up to temperature on idle not just get in drive off.

"

Usually because they are inconsiderate dicks.

This. My neighbour's son has a noisy boy racer-type car. He sits in it, switches it on, idles noisily for five minutes while he plays with his phone before finally driving off (and lead-footed at that). Twat."

DdraigGoch that's exactly how the manual for your vehicle tells you to start.

Turn on, wait till operating temp, drive off.

Your engine is going to be a lot more polluting when your burning oil and the small amount of wasted petrol is quite possibly outweighed by your engine lasting longer and not needing replacing or maintaining so intensely.

It's also much more important in "boy racer" cars as higher pressures mean the seals need to be better to contain it efficiently seals are set with heat etc.

It seems that the right of some people to stay warm/cold/listen to a song/go on their phone is more important than the rest of us having clean air. I remember reading that babies and small children in buggies are affected more by traffic pollution as they’re lower down.

Some vehicles need idling before shutdown to prevent costly damage occurring to the turbocharger over time.

I have a 2011 Mitsubishi L200 (pick up truck) which looks pretty new as it's been modified and well maintained (been resprayed and engine parts replaced etc). But despite looking like a new truck it has the old style turbodiesel engine which needs to be idled before shut off (even says in owner's manual not to shut straight off).

Second car is a petrol PeugeotSport GTI also with a turbocharged engine. It needs to be idled too, although less than the former. I think the technical reason is because the turbo keeps spinning when switched off but the oil supply stops, which isn't great as the turbo is literally still red hot and rotating at a very high rpm. It's increasingly becoming less of an issue as most modern turbo'd cars have fans which continue to run for a short period after engine is turned off.

Pulling away within seconds of starting the engine is also bad for most cars in most cases as the oil needs to circulate. It's like jumping out of bed in the morning and immediately running the 100 metres.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/29/the-biggest-winter-energy-myth-that-you-need-to-idle-your-car-before-driving/%3foutputType=amp

Modern cars don’t need idling.

There’s a reason why it’s in the Highway Code. There’s a reason why start/stop technology is a thing.

It’s very localised pollution and very damaging to those that have to walk round your car. And it stinks.