Waiting in car with engine running

[whatnewxxx]

Would you/do you/have you gone up to someone sitting in their car waiting with engine running for an hour (ie the engine running so that the car cooling or heating system works depending on the weather) and told them to turn off their engine for the sake of the environment?

I find it incredibly annoying that we have a bent tax system that gives low or no tax to dirty diesels and yet penalises relatively clean petrol engines. When i have my petrol car MOT'd the emissions indicate that its probably sucking in polluted city air,cleaning it up and pumping it out again ! ok so it produces CO2 but give me some CO2 any day over the carcinogenic particulates pumped out by diesels as well as other chemicals.

I do politely ask people to switch their engines off because of the fumes. Sometimes they do, sometimes they drive off.
i haven't yet had anyone explain that they need to do it, for what ever reason, but hope I would be equally reasonable. Fumes do affect me a great deal, though.

I would be telling them to fuck right off if someone knocked on my window!

I bet he wouldn’t have said anything if you were male!

I would be telling them to fuck right off if someone knocked on my window!

So would I. If the fumes still bother them, fuck off a bit further.

I’ve had someone tell me off for leaving my car running while I was doing deliveries. I didn’t hear her properly so went over closer to her so she could repeat herself . Took longer for her to moan about it than the actual parcel delivery, so ironically she ended up making me leave my car running for longer than necessary rather than making me stop it.

I explained that if I stopped and started my car each time I delivered something (could be up to 20 drops a day) my car would be absolutely knackered within a year and I’d cause a damn sight more damage to the planet having to get a new engine than the extra 10-15 minutes of exhaust fumes from keeping it running each day would do.

If I have to walk more than a few metres to the front door I switch it off and lock it up anyway, it’s only when I literally nip out, drop the parcel and leave, so maybe half the time.

My DP will leave his air con on while he’s on a business call in the car. I do find it a bit unnecessary but on a hot day while parked up he’d need the windows open at least, which means no privacy on his calls and it would mean starting the car back up again to close the windows at the end of the call, so again, more emissions and wear to the car. I don’t know how that compares to an engine idling but I’m sure that - in the grand scheme of pollution in this world - it doesn’t make a huge difference.

I remember Sean Locke talking about recycling. He said he was at home washing out his little Marmite pot then he went to America and saw the scale of the waste there and said he realised his little recycling efforts are like taking a dustpan and brush to a hurricane site and asking if there’s anything you can do to help!

Some people need to get a grip. Big corporations and indeed whole nations are the problem here, not individuals leaving their car running for a few minutes or not washing out their baked bean cans.

Usually I sit there feeling irritated (appreciate that this may not be reasonable on my part).

That said, after a parent had their engine on for over an hour and a half parked with his exhaust right up to the wire fence of the hockey astro, I did politely ask whether he might consider turning it off. I felt it wasn't great for the kids running around playing hockey in his exhaust fumes as they were playing on the pitch right by the fence. He didn't have anyone else in the car and it wasn't a hot or cold day.

It's a bit of a bug bear when parents do it right by where kids are playing or standing. Appreciate that some people need to leave their engines on for valid reasons, but not sure the majority do.

I went outside in my pyjamas and shouted at a neighbour a few weeks ago when his engine was running for 25 minutes at 5am. I was fucking pissed off. He claimed that he needed to "defrost the windows" but apparently that involved the engine running under my bedroom window for ages (windows open because it was a million degrees C overnight) while he sat on the pavement next to my drive having a bacon butty and a fag and a loud phone call with his mate.

Are you so virtuous when it comes to the environment that you don't waste any energy?? People in glass houses and all that.....

My dislike isn't the waste of energy. As you say, that's something most people are guilty of to some extent.

It's emitting exhaust fumes for an hour or more right by where kids, including their own, are playing or standing so they're breathing it in. I just think it's a bit unnecessary in many (though appreciate not all) cases.

Yes, I have said something to people who leave engines running, but not lecturing like your guy.

If you’re upset about it, pass it on - now it’s your turn to do a good deed and tell someone they don’t need their engine running. People often don’t have a reason to keep their engines running, they are just silly.

It's bad for the environment and for people's health. I think it's pretty selfish.