Idle-free zones idling

‘Feel guilty’ but no fines

Morgan Modjeski, staff

The first signs decrying “idle-free zones” were placed on the U of M campus in 2003, but some drivers are still idling in parking lots across the city.

Signs saying that drivers are not welcome to keep their cars running are distributed by Climate Connections Manitoba and funded by the municipal and provincial government.

Climate Connections Manitoba is a province-based organization that focuses on ways to make Manitoba greener.

According to Kurt Hull, project manager for CCM, idle-free zones put in place are supposed to guilt drivers into turning off their car.

“If someone is idling and they see the sign, they will feel guilty about continuing to idle.”

However, the Manitoba program has no fine in place for people caught idling in the zones. Other cities like Burlington, Ont. have taken a legal route with idling. In 2004, the city put in place a bylaw stating that idling was an offence punishable by law.

Burlington stated in the law that “no person shall cause or permit a vehicle to idle for more than three minutes in a 60-minute period.”

The cost of these signs has risen, since the program’s implementation in 2003, from $14 to $19 because of the Artsrise of aluminium’s cost.

The signs are placed in Winnipeg and other Manitoba cities and currently there are 200 of the signs located in Winnipeg and a total of 2700 in total across Manitoba, according to Climate Connections' five-year summary report.

“The idea behind the signs is to reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses that are released in the air while the car is idling,” said Hull.

“A car, while idling, produces more harmful chemicals then when at normal temperature, and it’s usually located at a place where the fumes are breathed in, usually by the entrance of a building,” said Hull.

Some drivers believe the effectiveness of the signs is questionable.

“I don’t think anyone pays any attention to [the signs],” said Evan Curtis, a second-year student in the faculty of arts who drives to school on a regular basis.

The idle-free zone project is still growing, but there is no proof verifying that the signs are working.

“We have not done any surveys to verify the use of these signs, just people telling us it’s making a difference,” says Hull.

“If you actually idle your car for more than 10 seconds, you’re wasting fuel,” says Quentin Chiotti, air program director at Pollution Probe, a Canadian environmental watchdog group told the Ottawa Citizen.

An average idling gas engine burns 3.5 litres of fuel per hour. That means that 10 seconds of idling at $1/litre costs about 60 cents.

According to Health Canada, more than 5,000 Canadians die prematurely every year because of air pollution.