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Idling Habits Pollution and Emissions Fuel Consumption Cost Effects of Idling on Engines Air Pollution Health Greenhouse Gas Emissions Kyoto Protocol Climate Change

 Idling Habits (back to top)

• Canadian drivers idle their vehicles anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes per day. A study says that in the middle of winter, Canadians idle their vehicles for a combined total of more than 75 million minutes a day - that's as much as one vehicle idling for 144 years. (2)
• A recent study showed that on an average summer day, the time spent idling by Canadians adds up to more than 46 million minutes, which is the same as one vehicle idling for 89 years. (11)
• A study in the City of Toronto found that more than one out of three of parents idle their vehicles while waiting to pick up their children. (2)
• Those living with children are more likely to idle than those without children (7)
• The amount of idling a driver does tends to increase with the number of people in the household. (7)
• The amount people idle their vehicles appears to decrease as people get older, with retired people being the least likely to idle.(7)
• In comparing regions across Canada, people in British Columbia are the least likely to idle their vehicles. (7)
• Service delivery vehicles spend 20-60% of their time idling, which costs fleet owners a lot of money and gets them nowhere. (2)
• By stopping your idling habits you are helping to improve air quality and community health. (2)

 Pollution & Emissions (back to top)

• If every driver of a light-duty vehicle in Canada stopped idling for just five minutes per day, we would stop more than 4,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. (7)
• Each day 8 million kilograms of greenhouse gases are released into our air by idling engines. (8)
• When idling, an engine makes two times the amount of greenhouse gases that it does when it is moving. (6)
• Idling a cold engine is even worse than idling a warm engine. Idling a cold engine causes more than double the normal levels of pollutant emissions. Fuel use is much less efficient in a cold engine, and the air-fuel mixture is much richer, which means a sharp increase in pollutants. (11)

 Fuel consumption (back to top)

• Ten seconds of idling uses more fuel than restarting your engine.(5)
• An idling gasoline engine will burn about 3.5 litres of fuel per hour. (12)
• If every driver of a light-duty vehicle in Canada stopped idling for just five minutes per day, we would save 1.6 million litres of fuel worth more than $1.2 million. (2)
• Scientists believe 3% of Ontario’s fuel is wasted by idling. (12)

 Cost (back to top)

• Idling your car for 10 minutes a day uses more than 100 litres of gasoline in a year, so depending on gas prices you could save approximately $80 per year just by turning your engine off. (5)
• A company called Molson Canada estimates that it is saving $225,000 annually from its stop idling program. (2)
• Each day Canadians waste a total of $1.8 million dollars worth of fuel by idling their vehicles.(8)

  Effects of Idling on Engines (back to top)

• When you warm your engine by driving, rather than by idling, you use less fuel and it takes less time to warm your engine. (12)
• Driving your vehicle warms your engine better than sitting idling. All modern engines only need 30 seconds of idling before hitting the road, even in the winter.
• Whenever you are driving, it is a good idea to avoid high speeds and rapid acceleration until your engine warms up. (2)
• Idling for long periods of time can damage your engine. (2)
• Restarting your engine causes little wear to the engines parts. Any costs you may have to pay will be returned to you with the fuel you saved by not idling. (2)

 Air Pollution (back to top)

• Children feel the effects of air pollution more than adults because of their smaller size, the fact that their lungs are still growing and because they spend more time playing outdoors. (4)
• In the city, motor vehicles are the major reason for the formation of smog. Vehicles produce the nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds that are the two main ingredients involved in the formation of ozone, a component of smog. (12)
• Burning fossil fuels releases carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, volatile organic compounds and small airborne particulate matter into the air. These emissions contribute to acid rain, smog, and other types of environmental pollution. (10)

 Health (back to top)

• Ozone and particles in the air are included in the group of chemicals connected to the health of your lungs and hospital visits. (12)
• Motor vehicles are the largest source of dangerous air pollution that adds to human health problems like cancer, damaged lungs, shortness of breath, wheezing, and asthma attacks. (10)
• Children feel the effects of air pollution more than adults. They breathe faster than adults and inhale more air per pound of body weight. (2)
• Health Canada estimates that more than 5,000 Canadians die each year because of air pollution. (2)
• Idling engines contribute to Smog. Across the province of Ontario, smog is linked to 1,920 deaths, 13,000 emergency room visits and 9,800 hospital stays each year. This costs Ontario more than $1 billion each year. (9)
• Asthma is one of the most common respiratory diseases. In the last ten years, the number of people with asthma has doubled. It is the number one reason why students miss school. (6)
• Childhood asthma has increased by 4 times over the past 20 years. The most common trigger for an asthma attack today is air pollution. (6)
• Exposure to most vehicle pollutants is much higher inside an idling vehicle than outside it. The highest exposure to pollutants happens when sitting in stopped traffic on highways or in a line-up of idling vehicles. (6)

 Greenhouse Gas Emissions (back to top)

• Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. For every litre of gasoline used, the average car makes about 2.4 kilograms of carbon dioxide. (11)
• In Canada, transportation is the largest producer of Greenhouse Gas emissions.(4)
• The everyday activities of Canadians are the reason for 28% or almost 1/3 of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions - that is almost six tonnes per person per year, or the volume of six average-sized two-story houses!(3)
• Greenhouse gases are an important part of the Earth's atmosphere. They help warm the Earth, without them the Earth's average temperature would be -18 degrees Celsius! The problem is that the burning of fossil fuels creates more greenhouse gases than the planet needs. (4)
• The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by 31 per cent since 1895. (4)
• The amount of methane in the atmosphere has increased by 151 per cent and the amount of nitrous oxide by 17 per cent. These are two other greenhouse gases. (4)
• In the year 2000, Canada's GHG emissions were 15 per cent greater than they were in 1990. (4)
• Canada produces only 2.5 per cent of the world's GHG emissions, but per person it is the world's third largest producer of greenhouse gases after USA and Australia.(4)
• Making an automobile takes large amounts of raw materials and energy. (10)
• An average gasoline vehicle releases 5,660 kg of greenhouse gases every year (10)
• Automobiles produce about 25% of the world's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. (10)

 Kyoto Protocol (back to top)

• The Government of Canada has promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 6% of the 1990 value, by the year 2012. (1)
• Since February 2003, 105 countries around the world have shown their support for cutting down on greenhouse gases by saying 'yes' to the Kyoto Protocol. (13)
• The Canadian government expects individual Canadians to do their part by reducing their personal greenhouse gas emissions by one tonne per year. This will look after about 10% or 1/10 of Canada's goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. (1)

 Climate Change (back to top)

• Scientists predict that around the world, average temperatures could increase by anywhere from 1.4 to 5.8 degrees Celsius over the next 100 years. To understand what this means think about the fact that today's average global temperatures are only about 5 degrees warmer than they were during the last Ice Age about 18,000 to 20,000 years ago.(4)
• Climate change will mean that we will have shorter and milder winters and more heat waves during the summer months. The heat waves may in turn cause more heat-related illnesses such as lung and heart disease and the spread of infection. (4)
• Warmer temperatures and the longer heat waves expected with climate change will create more air pollution. (4)
• The twentieth century (1900-1999) was the warmest in the last 1000 years. (4)

Sources (back to top)

1. Calamai, Peter. November 20th, 2002. Kyoto - What does it mean? Toronto Star.
   
2. City of Mississauga, Ontario, Mississauga's Anti-Idling Campaign
   
3. Climate Change Connections Manitoba
   
4. Government of Canada, Climate Change - It Matters
   
5. Greater Sudbury Canada, Idle free campaign Information
   
6. Greenest City, Remember the Rule? No Idling at School
   
7. Office of Energy Efficiency, Natural Resources Canada
   
8. Office of Energy Efficiency, Natural Resources Canada, Personal Vehicle Program
   
9. Ontario Medical Association, Ontario Medical Review, The Illness Costs of Air Pollution in Ontario, July/August 2000
   
10. Pembina Institute, Climate Change Solutions
    
11. Resource Conservation Manitoba, Green Commuting Initiative - Turn-Off Campaign
    
12. Toronto Public Health, The 20/20 Planner
    
13. United Nations Framework, Convention on Climate Change