Are Pick-Up and Drop-Off Moms Killing the Environment?
New York City is getting tough on going green. Their latest targets? Parents.
Moms and dads who leave their cars idling for more than one minute near New York City’s public AND prive schools will be slapped with a $100 fine.
Mark this on the calendar, because I don’t say this much. Bravo Mayor Bloomberg. Now can we spread this around the country?
I admit I’ve been a little guilty of this one myself of late. When it’s ten below, I pull up as close to the nursery school door as possible, pop out with my daughter and run her inside – leaving the keys in the ignition the entire time What can I say, I’m a cold wuss! Although I live upstate, and the city’s new law won’t hit me, it’s still made me give myself a slap on the wrist and vow not to do it anymore.
Every two minutes a car idles equals just about the amount of gasoline necessary to drive one mile. Gas prices might be down from the highs of last year, but in this economy, most of us could realy use the money saved on an extra mile of gas. Then throw in the environmental affects. Every gallon of gasoline produces about twenty pounds of carbon dioxide. Left to idle for ten minutes, and a car can use as much as half a gallon of gas – producing ten pounds of CO2.
Schools across the nation have started turning the buses off to cut down on pollution and fuel consumption. Studies have estimated that if every school bus in the country reduced by two minute the amount of time the engine is operating between the trips to and from school, annual emissions would drop by three hundred nineteen tons of carbon monoxide, one hundred eighty-five
tons of nitrogen dioxide and just over eight tons of small particulate matter.
But while the buses themselves might produce more than a passenger vehicle, there are generally a lot more cars and trucks in the pick-up and drop-off lines than there are school buses. So how about we moms and dads get their acts together?
Image: Carbon Offset Solutions
Source: The Daily News
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We own coats. And hats and gloves. I’m not talking about 30 degree weather here. I’m talking subzero. And I’m not doing it everyday either. When my son needs to stay after school once every other month or so for whatever I might actually have to pick him up. So the car does stay running if I am a little early or have to run in and get him. I don’t feel guilty about it.
I’m willing to bet Al Gore’s carbon footprint is way bigger than mine.
And I love this planet as much as anyone else here does, but I enjoy being warm too.
simple
they did not live in Florida
I walk my kids to school every morning. One of the reasons is that I like to spend the time with the boys and a brisk walk tends to wake them up and make them more alert for school.
Until they start inhaling all of those fumes. I actually petitioned the school last year to make the parking lot an “idle-free zone,” which has helped. A fine would probably help even more.
Most of the children at the school live within one mile. Most of them are driven to school. And, like a PP mentioned, most people are amazed that we walk to school. (“Even in the rain?” Yes, it’s Portland, so we’re kinda used to the rain, and the kids are waterproof. “Even when it’s cold?” Yes, we have jackets.)
My personal feeling is that most people are too lazy to walk the mile to school, and even too lazy to turn off the damn car when they are not in it.
BB–what did people do in Florida before AC?
I live in Florida and I can tell you for most of the year it would be ridiculous to turn your car off (or even just the AC in a running car) for more than a minute or two in the heat. Even with the windows open, the interior temperature of the car can top 100 degrees. (Most available stats only allow for the windows to be “cracked” – and say that the car can reach 125 degrees in 20 minutes and 140 degrees in 40 minutes.) These kind of fines are about revenue – not the environment.
What about cabs? They do quite a bit of idling – and I know being a cabbie is often a bare-bones living to be making, I don’t suggest making it even harder for these people to make money. Just curious how much of a contributor the cabs are.
My kids go to school in Texas. We walk or ride a bike to school almost daily, since it’s only a mile away. I too, am irritated at the car drop off line. I hate breathing the fumes and trying to swerve around them through the blocked crosswalk.
Other parents say, “Wow! That’s so cool you always walk or ride to school. But I can’t because it would be a mile each way.”
Seriously.
I have no right to voice an opinion about this because I live in So. California and I walk my oldest to school. But I did see someone idling their car out here recently — outside a bank — and I was like.. wtf? It’s 60 degrees out. Why the hell wouldn’t you turn your gd car off? I would have thought a fine would be appropriate in that case. Can’t speak to those folks living in the colder climates.
This is great. I had no idea so many people were aware of the gas-guzzling potential of an idling car (then again, I live in NYC and haven’t actually driven a car in 8 years…) My husband though is practically a hyper-miler and even turns the car off at really long traffic lights.
yay!!
my kids go to school in Brooklyn. The school is two blocks away from a major subway station and within three blocks of many bus routes. And yet, every morning and every afternoon the street and cross walks near the school are blocked by parents idling their cars. Not only is it bad for the environment, it makes crossing the street very dangerous.
If your car is stolen and you left the keys in it your insurance will not cover the loss. Cops laugh at people who get ripped off like that. Cars are so well insulated that it will stay well about freezing for a few minutes after you turn off the car.
How can a car possibly be freezing cold in 2 minutes? If you turn it off, take the keys with you, and start it again in 2 minutes it will still be warmed up.
Sheri, they make these things called coats. You really should try them.
I live in Chicago where it was, like, -12 without windchill a few weeks ago. Even then, the car doesn’t suddenly get freezing in a few minutes.
My husband and I were just discussing this topic today, how much we hate idling pick-up and drop-off traffic. It screws up through-traffic for blocks around and makes the morn and afternoon air stink like exhaust. Go, NYC.
So, I am supposed to get one kid out of a car when it is freezing outside, turn my car off, and come back 2 minutes later to a freezing car, so my first kid can freeze while the car is warming up again???? Because that’s the only time i do that.
OK, sure. I’ll do that when Al Gore quits flying privately and showing up to events in limos.