With all the great work taking place to raise awareness of the harm caused by vehicle idling, the reality is that drivers can idle their engines and pollute the air we breathe whenever and wherever and for as long they please.
Drivers only have to switch off their engine if they are asked to by an authorised person and this may never happen in a driver’s entire lifetime. If they are asked to switch off and they do so, then no further action is taken. Even if they return to the same spot and idle the next day, they still have to be asked by an authorised person to switch off and if they do switch off, then once again no action is taken. If anyone has any evidence to the contrary please share.
Idling produces almost twice the emissions of a moving vehicle and contributes to the stunting of children’s lungs, increased risk of respiratory and cardiovascular conditions and premature death. The threat of a fine is irrelevant because drivers will switch off their engine on the rare occasion they are asked to by an authorised person.
As councils earn little to no revenue from fining idling drivers, tacking idling comes at a substantial cost. Parents, teachers, campaigners, even police officers who ask drivers to switch off their engines cannot issue a fine if drivers refuse to switch off. This idling law is not fit for purpose… unless the purpose is to allow drivers to burn as much fuel as possible.
Our government gets 57.95p per litre in fuel tax at every fill-up. In total, duties on petrol & diesel add up to almost £28bn a year for the exchequer. How much time do drivers spend idling in congested traffic during rush hour or idling outside a nursery/school? How much revenue is generated through the unnecessary and harmful burning of fuel?
According to INRIX London remains the UK’s most congested city and ranks second in Europe after Moscow and seventh in the world. Drivers in London spent an average of 71 hours in gridlock during peak hours. Manchester and Birmingham take the second and third spots respectively, with drivers in each city spending 39 and 36 hours stuck in peak hour congestion. Drivers in these cities spent 10 and 9 percent of their time in congestion overall in 2017.
file:///D:/Back%20u/Little%20Ninja/LN%20Twitter/Stop%20Start%20Idling/INRIX_2017_Traffic_Scorecard_Final_English.pdf
It’s right that we do all we can to raise awareness and educate drivers about the harm idling causes. We spent decades doing the same for smoking. However, it was changes to the laws around smoking that meant real change occurred, with one of the biggest public health interventions we’ve seen in the last 20 years.
How long should a vehicle be able to idle for outside a nursery, school, hospital, playground, your home? Who should be authorised to ask a driver to stop idling? Should timestamped video evidence from a smart phone be accepted as proof of idling when sent securely to an authorised department? Should the standard £20 idling fine be substantially increased to reflect the harm being caused?
These are the questions that we should demand our Parliament debate and provide us with idling laws fit for purpose – to protect public health, children’s health and the health of our planet.
Thank you signing our petition and taking us past the 200 mark! Please ask someone: "do you believe vehicles should be allowed to idle next to babies and children" and if they say "no" then ask them to join you in signing this petition.