Dinker and Giggles

This afternoon started off with me wanting to get to my sons school early so I could have some time to just sit and veg. A few moments to myself – over 20 moments actually. I wasn’t the only one early to the preschool. One of the bus/van was already there. Running. The driver looked like he had already been there for a while as he was relaxed and playing on his phone.

The moment I pulled into my spot I made a split second decision (totally unlike me) to get out and ask him to turn the van off. Why does he need to sit there for over 20 minutes letting the van run? I could possibly understand if it was below freezing outside but I was in short sleeves and windows all the way down.

Me: (walked up to van) Hi. I don’t want to be rude or anything but could you turn the van off. You don’t need to sit here with it on idle.

Driver: (blank face) I thought that was just a diesel law.

Me: Does it really matter? Either way it’s wasting gas and polluting the air.

Driver: (annoyed) It’s a diesel law.

Me: I’m not a tree hugger or anything but…

Driver: (cutting me off) Well that’s what it seems like.

Me: Either way it’s wasting gas, polluting the air, and can still get into the schools vent system [he was parked right in front of the door and I've seen vents on the building near there]

Driver: (super annoyed and some sass in his tone) Whatever makes you happy…I’ll do it just cause you want me too [I think he rolled his eyes too]

Me: Thank you, I really appreciate it. (walk away as I’m sure he was texting his buddies telling them about the crazy lady on his route)

So am I crazy in asking him to turn the van off. In my mind NO. And yes I will tell you why.

• First of all the whole myth about leaving your car running was null and void years ago with the wonderful invention of EFI (electronic fuel injection). Try googling it and you will find that leaving your car idling is actually bad for it and 10 seconds is equal to 1 start up. So if you are going to be somewhere say waiting for school to let out for more than a minute do us all a favor and just shut the car off.

• Secondly, I would have been more understanding if it was really cold out. However, researching to see if I was right I found that now a days the way cars are made that letting them “warm up” for more than 2 minutes is also bad for them. If it was cold I’m sure the van would have been piping hot and even turning it off for just 15 minutes it still wouldn’t have gotten that cold in there. That gives him five minutes to turn the van back on and let it warm up.

• Third, Our planet as a whole is in a economic & environmental crisis – fossil fuels will not be around for forever and I noticed gas prices are going up again. So we have people that like to sit for 20 minutes and just let the car run and run to thank.

• Fourth, Companies all over our city – our country – are making budget cuts and even laying employees off. Now I’m not saying that this one time of turning the van off is going to save someones job, but if he is there everyday 20 minutes early and does this on a daily basis then I’m wondering just how much his van could save alone.

• Fifth, Why is it just a diesel law? I’ve seen signs outside of buildings saying that you can only let a diesel idle for a maximum of five minutes. Shouldn’t it be this way for all vehicles? Not just commercial vehicles but even private ones as well? Think of how much energy we would save and if everyone is doing this – all 10+ million drivers that are on the road daily how much pollution we would be cutting. – Also, I found during my research that in NYC you can get fined up to $1,000 if caught idling for more than 60 seconds.

If you have information with stats on facts that would help/hurt my case I’d love if you can leave them in the comment/opinion section. Also, I’d love if you have any thoughts on this to comment as I do plan on sending a email to the company that owns the van. I’m sure they are trying to cut costs and perhaps a change in their internal operations even if it’s just a few dollars here and there helps. You know that saying right – every penny counts.