When being idle is a waste of energy

Everyday, millions of vehicles sit idle, their engines running but going nowhere.

In the past, we didn't care much about this. We surely weren't going to concern ourselves with fuel economy from shutting off the engine when parked at the curb, not when many of those vehicles were gas-guzzling SUVs. But that idling should today give us fuel for thought. It is needlessly burning up very expensive gasoline. The Environmental Defense Fund estimates that everyday Americans waste over 3.8 million gallons of gas by voluntarily idling their vehicles.

More attention is being paid to this - both by communities and individuals. It took gas moving to well over $4 per gallon to get us there. Every gallon saved is a blessing to household budgets being hammered by high gasoline bills. And when more people begin to realize they are getting zero miles per gallon by keeping their car engines running, a lot of gas being wasted will be conserved.

And the air will be a lot cleaner.

Elk Grove Village is considering creating "no idling zones" in the community to encourage motorists to shut off their engines when there is no reason to have a vehicle sitting idle. A good idea, but we don't know if there is yet a need for a new law to crack down on idlers, an option Elk Grove is considering. It first might want to follow the village of Wheeling's lead. Wheeling was mulling a communitywide anti-idling ordinance earlier this year, but opted to look at a public awareness/education program first. Lombard iniated just such a program earlier this year with its "Anti-Idling Day". Village residents were asked to shut off their vehicle engines while picking up children at school or waiting on passengers at the train station.

Citizens aren't sitting idle on this matter.

Last month, we published a letter to the editor from Julia Geynisman of Naperville in which she chided Pace for allowing buses to idle for long periods of time. She wrote that she saw Pace buses standing still with engines running for up to 20 minutes while waiting for passengers at Metra stations.

And last year, Polly Rerko of St. Charles spearheaded a public education campaign to persuade parents to turn off their car engines while waiting to pick up their children at school.

It is going to be hard to bring down the price of gasoline, if that is even possible. But there are some easy things to do to conserve costly fuel, such as turning the key to off when you are sitting in the car.

Of course, there is a lot of idling that is not avoidable. We are forced to sit in traffic jams and have to stop, with engines running, at red lights. This wastes more fuel than voluntary idling and cries for more mass transit that is practical and accessible (we'd agree with the person who responded to Geynisman's letter by noting that those Pace buses that run near-empty waste more fuel than idling) and regionwide cooperation in timing traffic signals.

But motorists can do their part by not spending their idle time wasting so much energy.