Utah has some of the worst air pollution in the nation. Approximately 50% of this air pollution comes from vehicle tailpipes. Scientific studies link cancer, heart and lung disease, asthma, and SIDS to air pollution. Children growing up along the Wasatch Front will likely never develop their full lung capacity due to chronic pollution exposure.

You, however, can help! You can start by driving less, carpooling and not IDLING your car when you do drive. Consider this:

• One hour of idling = ZERO miles per gallon
• One hour of idling = one gallon of gasoline = about $3.
• One hour of idling each week = 52 hours of idling a year = over $150.00 wasted! (Wouldn’t you rather have a new bike or a day at a spa?!)

• More than 10 seconds of idling consumes more fuel than restarting your engine….so remember to TURN THE KEY and BE IDLE-FREE!

• During the winter, modern engines need less than 30 seconds to warm-up on a chilly day.

If you care about our air, please consider supporting Mayor Becker’s anti-idling ordinance that is modeled after successful implementations in other cities. Under the ordinance, vehicles found idling for more than two minutes would be subject to an initial warning, followed by fines for subsequent offenses. The ordinance would only apply to public property, although UMFCA thinks it should apply to all vehicles regardless of where they are idling. After all, we all share one airshed and air pollution will go wherever the wind blows it!

More information on the proposed anti-idling ordinance is available at www.slcgov.com/opencityhall. To comment or make suggestions on the proposed ordinance during the next week, e-mail the mayor’s office at mayor@slcgov.com.

For more information about idling and the air you breath visit:

www.IdleFree.Utah.Gov.
www.airquality.utah.gov
www.epa.gov/air/airpollutants.html

Hope to see you all there!

By Derek P. Jensen
The Salt Lake Tribune
Sept 8, 2010

Stop your engines, for blue sky’s sake.

That is the environmental mandate from Mayor Ralph Becker, who wants Salt Lake City drivers to cease idling when parked in front of schools, homes or other “hot zones.”

Becker’s proposed citywide ordinance — the first of its kind in Utah — would bar idling for longer than two minutes. It carves out cops, battery-charged hybrids, refrigerated trucks and situations in which defrosters, heaters, air conditioners or other equipment are needed for safety or health.

But for motorists of regular vehicles, the fines are steep. First-time offenders would get a warning. If you’re caught again idling within 24 months of the first offense, expect to pay $210. A third offense and beyond — within 24 months of the first crime — would cost $410.

Becker has posted the proposal for public input at www.slcgov.com/opencityhall. After six weeks, tweaks may be made before the suggested ordinance goes to the City Council, likely this winter.

“Anti-idling city codes are in place across America, yet here in Salt Lake City we have the worst air quality in the country,” Becker said. “I am asking residents to provide feedback to improve the ordinance as it is currently proposed and, in turn, support it as law.”

Terms for the idling crackdown are modeled after scores of similar city laws nationwide and throughout Canada. For now, the planned restrictions do not apply to cars on driveways, though city officials are exploring whether to include them.

“We certainly regulate a lot of things on private property,” says Councilman Soren Simonsen, applauding Becker for the overall idea. “I don’t think it’s a legal question; it’s just how much of a chunk do we want to bite off.”

Simonsen prefers a comprehensive idling ban that covers public and private property. “Anything that will help with our air-quality problem. If we chip away at it a little bit at a time, eventually all these measures are going to amount to something substantial.”

Becker spokeswoman Lisa Harrison Smith says complaints have come regarding driveway idling. But the mayor, she says, is reviewing whether to stretch the proposed law that far. “Right now, it’s still a question mark.”

Similar idling laws focus on so-called hot zones that include schools, airports and drive-throughs.

“We feel confident that we’ve built in exemptions that are sensible, but we want to make sure,” says Smith, adding the fine amounts and number of warnings could be adjusted. “Part of this process it to vet it publicly. We just want to know how the public feels. Also, that it’s sensible.”

Enforcement would not fall on the city’s already-stretched police force. Instead, parking patrol, under the city’s Civil Enforcement Division, would be responsible for issuing citations.

So, if the ordinance passes, will City Hall have to send out a new fleet of white Jeeps on the hunt for dawdling exhaust? Simonsen says that’s not realistic.

“We certainly don’t have the budget right now to put more enforcement out unless we anticipate a lot of money through these idling fines,” he says. “But I don’t anticipate that raising more than money for just one or two more staff [for increased parking patrol].”

More than 50 percent of the state’s air pollution is a result of mobile sources, according to theproposal. It also notes car engines consume more than a gallon of fuel for each hour they idle. And it cites the U.S. Department of Energy’s claim that three billion gallons of fuel are wasted every year on idling engines.