City Government
Idle Thought: So What’s New?
August 20, 2011 
We certainly agree with the latest campaign by Boise’s Team Dave to cut down on emissions by turning off automobile engines while at drive up windows and the like. But there is nothing new here.
The GUARDIAN outed idle copper cars long ago and even got an official POLICY implemented to curtail the practice.
We wrote a nice response to a letter from the Mayor on the subject, but he didn’t thank us for our previous efforts. The DAILY PAPER editorialized on the topic today…three years AFTER we had run stories advocating cutting exhaust by stopping the idling.
Here is the OFFICIAL CITY RULE.
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Comments & Discussion
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© 2011 Boise Guardian. 
Aug 21, 2011, 11:37 pm
Nice policy! It will, however, be left on the trashheap of “tell them anything, then we do what the hell we want” policies of city government!
Aug 22, 2011, 10:53 am
I once read that a car uses the same amount of gas to idle for three minutes as it takes to start the engine, so if you are going to idle for less than 3 minutes, it is more fuel efficient to let it idle. So, do you want clean air or to use less fuel?
EDITOR NOTE–Rod, the current science is 30 seconds. Check back on some of our 2008 posts about the coppers.
Aug 22, 2011, 4:05 pm
According to the California Energy Commission’s website, the cutoff point is 10 seconds. (And no, it doesn’t cause appreciably more wear on starter, batteries, etc., either.)
Of course, what would California know about cars and smog and fuel comsumption and such?!