Yes I’m odd,
but when I go to the auto show, I don’t grab any handouts or
freebies -- except the ones from The Government of Canada booth.
It is the very latest pamphlet on vehicle idling that has hit me
between the eyes. Titled “Idling is Killing our Environment”,
Ottawa’s latest effort kicks up the calibre from the previous
brochure, “Running your Car is Really not that Good of an Idea,
you know”. Cover art: a drawing of twin exhaust pipes, fashioned
into a double-barrelled weapon.
Idling is a
fair target, but is the best assault a frontal one? Considering
how many people actually read government car pamphlets, one
might expect a crafty combination of simplicity, subtlety and
credibility.
Whether or
not you believe humans have taken a slap-shot at the
environment, or that climate change is just par for the course
of the world, idling is hard to defend. Sure, there are lots of
ways to pollute, like speed-up-and-brake driving, unnecessary
trips and bad tire inflation. But if the authorities want to
make idling as gauche as smoking in the nursery, they must think
like an idler.
It will take
cleverness to prompt all the good citizens of Canada to “start
driving after no more than 30 seconds, assuming your vehicle’s
windows are clear.” Just saying so is not enough. Likewise,
there’s the edict that covers the rest of the driving day:
“Idling your vehicle for longer than 10 seconds uses more fuel
than it takes to restart your vehicle.” Will this statement
convince all the non-Prius drivers that their cars -- especially
older ones -- are included in such blanket coverage? You can’t
just spout a 10-second mantra like that without some back-up.
For such a
serious message, a sophisticated effort may work better to get
through ingrained habits. In wintertime Canada, it just seems
natural that you run the car to somehow warm up the drive train,
or the compartment, or at least the steering icicle. A block
heater helps, but many folks are convinced idling will warm the
rest -- and that is your target audience. If necessary, quote
GM’s cold-weather testers -- it’s harder to argue with a guy
who drives cars in predawn Kapuskasing for a living.
You also
must be shrewd in order to take on the scrape-and-idlers --
those who conscientiously clean the snow from their car while
breathing in the worst, most unconverted exhaust their vehicle
will produce all day. Reach us where we live -- and where we
drive.
For my rural
reality check, I turn to my regular correspondent Eric
McConnachie, frozen somewhere in central Canada. “These
mornings,” he writes, “it is not uncommon to have temperatures
anywhere between -25 and -35 Celsius.” Before his 7 a.m. commute
to town, he writes, “I go out and unplug the block heater and
the transmission warmer and start the car a few minutes before
we leave.” Despite a 20 minute commute, “when we get to work the
car still isn't that warm, and the steering wheel still hasn't
warmed up enough to make it comfortable to hold without mitts or
gloves.”
Who’s going
to tell drivers like him that taking off after half a minute --
okay, slowly taking off -- is really an option? McConnachie
continues, “No doubt about it, it's nice to have a warm car
before you leave home. A comfortable driver is a better driver.
It occurs to me that you city drivers probably spend more time
idling your engines than we rural types do. Bad traffic. Stop
signs and stop lights. Garbage trucks and so on.” Got it.
Somebody start rewriting that pamphlet.
Ed Drass
Email the
Traffic Guru at
edrass@nationalpost.com