Vehicle Idling

At the City Council meeting held on April 5th, the issue of vehicle idling was discussed. The initial recommendation to council was amended a couple of times and the follow motion, more or less, was passed.

1. Implement an Idle-Reduction education campaign involving the City Fleet and staff and develop a Vehicle/Equipment Idle Reduction Policy,
2. The City partner with fleets and organizations community wide, to implement an Idle Reduction education campaign,
3. Develop an Idle-Reduction education and awareness campaign for the general public, and,
4. In one years time, review the data gathered in steps 1 to 3 to pursue the question of developing a stand-alone Idle Reduction bylaw, and further,
5. Direct Administration provide a report regarding implementation of the four step Idling Reduction Program with priority given to the first three steps, for review at a future Protective Services Committee meeting.

I have a few comments regarding the motion that was passed. First of all, Ald. Bill Given was able to amend part 4 of the motion so that Council felt comfortable with the direction we were taking. The majority of us felt that developing an anti-idling bylaw would be premature at this point in time. Other municipalities are trying different things, but I don't feel they are really clear about what they are trying to accomplish.

I believe a bylaw should be written so that it is possible for the majority of citizens to comply with the law. In addition, any bylaw that we pass should also be enforceable by our Bylaw Officers. Finally, in the matter of environmental bylaws, I believe we should always try to educate the public and give them time to voluntary change their habits before we try to legislate behavior. Changing how people act can be a slow process, and we should allow people time to adapt when the behavior we are trying to change isn't directly and immediately harmful to another person.

My amendment to the motion dealt with the changing the wording from "idle-free" to "idle-reduction". I couldn't in good conscience direct our administration towards and "idle-free" policy. Although it is always a good idea to set your goals high, I believe you should always say what you mean and mean what you say. I personally tested a 3 minute maximum idle time this past winter. The fact that I keep my vehicle in a garage, made it easier on me than most people in the city. I did, however, park my vehicle overnight in the unprotected outdoors during minus 30 weather and also for several hours during the normal course of my life. I had little problems on many days, other than a little discomfort from the cold. There were issues that I discovered on over half the days I left my vehicle exposed to the elements.

In 3 minutes, I found that there were days that I physically could not remove the snow and ice from my vehicle in time. On extremely cold days, or days with a higher humidity level, my windows frosted over as I was driving away. This is a safety concern that could be a major issue as it happened on days that were no colder than about -15 degrees. This problem extended to rainy days when the rain would instantly freeze on the windshield if my vehicle wasn't properly warmed.

I was reminded that idling is also an issue in the summer when the temperatures get warm enough to require air conditioning in vehicles. People travel with children and pets in their vehicles and air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter are necessities of life. Without the proper research, it would be irresponsible for City Council to embark on legislation. My own research, as limited as it was, showed that it was difficult if not impossible to adhere to only 3 minutes of idling in the winter. Many exceptions would need to be in place to make this a reasonable request from our residents.

As for an "Idle-free" policy, I'm not sure that's even possible. I can see it working in the summer, but again, during a normal year in Grande Prairie, it doesn't seem reasonable. I had a hard enough time making a 3 minute timeline work. That's with a new vehicle, a garage and making a real effort to comply. Telling people that it is possible to be idle-free in Grande Prairie is mis-informing them.

I believe that we can all reduce whenever and where ever possible. Maybe our educational campaign needs to let people know information like: if you reduced your idling by just one minute every time you started your car, you would save yourself a tank of gas every year. I'm not sure if that information is true or not, but people need to know how it affects them personally.