City of Toronto employees are governed by a policy to minimize idling.
All City of Toronto employees are expected to follow the 10 second rule: if you're stopped for 10 seconds, turn off your vehicle. If all drivers do this, we can reduce CO2 emissions in Toronto by approximately 2,100 tonnes per year. That's like taking 486 passenger cars off the road annually.*
Along with the 10 second rule, the policy gives guidelines regarding vehicle warm-up times. Read the full policy for all the details (PDF 17 Kb).
Idling myths dispelled
Myth: It uses more gas to stop and start my vehicle.
Wrong: It has been found that 10 seconds of idling uses the same amount of fuel as stopping and starting a vehicle.
Myth: My vehicle needs to warm-up for 10 minutes (or more) before I can drive it.
Wrong: Due to advances in technology, this is no longer needed.
- heavy duty vehicles need only warm-up for three to five minutes, no matter the temperature, and
- light duty vehicles need only warm-up for 30 seconds, no matter the temperature
Myth: It's harder on my vehicle to stop and start it all the time.
Wrong: Studies show that frequent restarting has little impact on engine parts such as the battery and starter motor. The wear on components that restarting the engine causes adds about $10 a year to the cost of driving - money that you'll likely recover several times over in fuel savings from reduced idling*.
Why is idling such an issue?
Transportation is a leading cause of CO2 emissions in Toronto, and a major source of the air pollutants that cause smog. Idling not only wastes fuel and money, it unnecessarily pollutes our air. If we can reduce the amount of CO2 and pollution going into the air, we can:
Visit the Office of Energy Efficiency's Idle Free Zone for more tips and information relating to idling.
The Idle-Free ten-second rule applies to City of Toronto staff driving corporate vehicles. Toronto also has an idling by-law that limits idling by members of the public in their own vehicles. For more information on the Idling Control By-law, visit Transportation Services' site.
For more information on the health effects caused by idling, visit Toronto Public Health's site.
Let's all work together to make Toronto Idle-Free.
* Based on Natural Resources Canada calculations.
* Source: Office of Energy Efficiency, Natural Resources Canada.
