Comments on: Idle Thoughts On City Vehicles

By: Sam the sham

Sam the sham — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:01:51 +0000

while walking along Edson Street and close to the park by South Jr High, I noticed two things which may be of interest to you… one was a Boise Parks Dept. van which was pulled over and parked – yet running – with the driver inside, reading. The other was a group of vest clad men doing their community service, trimming a very tall hedge. I asked the woman officer if that was city property since it was in front of the A frame home… she said that it was because of a ditch that ran between the property and the street. So I joyfully said – oh then I can walk my dog there! “no, no, it’s not very wide and it’s private property on the other side” Oh, so you will just trim up the street side of this hedge. “no, no, we will trim both sides because of the canal”
Well, there are a lot of small covered ditches on the bench, as well as open ones and I have never seen the city trimming bushes on any of them. But then a (PROMINENT NAME) does live on Edson Street, so that may be the reason for the special interest the city has there.

By: Shane

Shane — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:20:44 +0000

If private enterprise wants to run their AC all day at 60 degrees, I’m all for it. But when I’m signing the check to BPD (or any government agency) they should conserve every penny at every inconvenience.

By: LJ

LJ — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 19:27:35 +0000

You know, I think jstew makes a pretty good point. We are all looking at protecting the environment, and saving money…so why not take it one step further? How many people are reading this from a home or office that is air conditioned? How about when officers are doing surveillance, or finishing up paperwork in the cars? That is an ‘idling’ vehicle. It isn’t practical to make someone work in a 110 degree car (if the windows are down, and a breeze is blowing). Seems to me that it would be fair to make this policy go all the way around, not just focus on city vehicles (cops).

By: jstew

jstew — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 05:49:10 +0000

My brother in law made a good point. Would the mayor, or anyone else, be willing to turn off the a/c in their office every time they stepped out for 5 minutes if they knew it would be 150 degrees in there when they got back? How about if every time they left their office they had to stand out in the hot sun dressed in black from head to toe wearing 25 lbs of equipment and a vest that breathes like a garbage bag? There isn’t a business out there that couldn’t save money by turning their thermostat up to 90 during the summer to save on their electric bill but how many people are willing to do that?

By: Razzbar

Razzbar — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:53:14 +0000

Isn’t it illegal to leave a car with the engine running?

EDITOR NOTE–Yes. They call the violation “unattended motor vehicle.”

By: Shane

Shane — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:27:24 +0000

Great policy, lets just hope BPD can do their part and follow it, they usually think the law doesn’t apply to them, so we’ll see…

By: Wade Dorrell

Wade Dorrell — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:04:04 +0000

@Clancy: Cool, but discussion is on engine idling, not car share. Actually, if people were stealing these idling vehicles, it would be kind of like car share…

@Razzbar: 0/0 != 0/N where N>0, but yes, it’s a silly statement. I would have liked to see a rule closer to the pocketbook, like “15 minutes unnecessary idling costs $2 in gas (this week), and we’ll be taking it out of your paycheck.”

By: Nemo

Nemo — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:52:10 +0000

PD cars used to be equiped with lock out devices that would allow the car to idle with out the keysa in it, but when someone took it out of park with out the key (as in to steal it) , the vehicle shut down.

By: Razzbar

Razzbar — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:11:52 +0000

Zero miles per gallon: Well, of course. It gets that even if the engine is off. Maybe gallons per hour or something like that would be more meaningful?

Thieves can break in: They can also do that when the engine is off, no?

EDITOR NOTE–Too much caffeine Razzbar. When the engine is running that means the KEY is in the ignition and they can just drive off with the loot, car and all.

By: JIMV

JIMV — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:45:21 +0000

I would bet a year from now we will not see even a 1% drop in fuel used. Too many exceptions, all subjective. The powers that be will enforce it for a few weeks or months and then gradually ignore it.