Comments on: Ranting About Idling Vehicles

By: sueh

sueh — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:20:28 +0000

farafield – thank you so much for your note. It also encourages me to know there are others who notice and care. I could write a BIG article about the responses I get and will be ranting more about it soon. Love to hear about your film if you do it.
Angry Sue

By: farafield

farafield — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 02:33:16 +0000

Your site is a lovely oasis. I found it by searching for “outraged by idling.” I am your doppelganger in America. I have lived in Japan, which probably made both of us more aware of national frugality…and I go through paroxysms (practically) of outrage when I pass by all the g.d. idling trucks, buses, SUVs, etc etc that line our streets. In fact I’m fixing to make a tiny little movie of my own, for youtube kinds of ends, where I get my 8 year old daughter to walk up to people and ask them: WHY? You say people ask you why when you tell them to shut if off, but try asking them why they need it on. Most of the time people come up with the lamest excuses, after staring at me for minute. Or they don’t even try to explain. “You’re the first person that asked me that in 6 years of coming here” said the ice cream truck man, spewing out fumes onto the 4 and 5 year olds lined up at his truck (he didn’t need the power for the cold, btw). He said you’re right, I’ll turn it off…(next day he’d forgotten).

One of your comment-leavers says what a waste of time to pursue idling, the big guzzle is from cars stuck at badly planned traffic lights. We understand this — the waste is built into every layer of modern living, and it’s vast, and it’s impoverishing us. The reason to stop idling is that it’s right there in front of everyone, the lowest hanging fruit. People start to notice how nice it is not to have the noise. It begins to dawn on them that they could find other ways of avoiding waste…There is a continuum and we can introducing reason at any point we wish.

Your rant, and the lovely pissing commercial, inspire me and reassure me I’m not alone. We do need to form a union of anti-idlers.

By: Murray

Murray — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 23:21:20 +0000

City anti-idling bylaws are just a feel-good distraction and address about 2% of idling problems. The real issue is poorly designed traffic systems that leave 10s, 100s, 1000s of cars idling for no good reason at traffic lights. Day in. Day out.

The problem is that don’t like to prioritize where impacts are meaningful, and end up with useless eforts like anti-idling bylaws.

By: Gael

Gael — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:50:37 +0000

Does your city have an anti-idling by-law? Mine does. If your city does have such a law, you could call the by-law office about persistent idlers.

By: Marv

Marv — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:21:37 +0000

You know……Many of us felt just like that little dog of yours…..often dragged along, by you, in some idle chatter, half-baked musing, or poignant blurt.
No, didn’t hurt us either, mostly enjoyed it….. but never, never, NEVER, could we, or at least me, call it what it was….. a friggin rant.
Thank you for now calling a spade a shovel!
Thank you for liberating us all.
Thank you…Thank you…..
When I have time I’ll explore your friggin site and take a another turn on your friggin shovel!
…xo Marv