interesting look at idling
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 30,341
Likes: 9
From: Cambridge, Ont. Canada
Good points and all of which I agree with. I too wish everyone would do their part to curtail idling.
Sometimes at certain traffic lights I'll even turn my car off due to the length of the light, but those are ones I know and that are abnormally long winded.
I'm glad he wasn't talking about 'idling' at home-- I'm so lazy lately, I'd fail miserably at that one.
C.
Sometimes at certain traffic lights I'll even turn my car off due to the length of the light, but those are ones I know and that are abnormally long winded.
I'm glad he wasn't talking about 'idling' at home-- I'm so lazy lately, I'd fail miserably at that one.
C.
i drove to london last friday to visit my buddy and got stuck in that ingersoll disaster on the 401w. took me about 5.5 hours to get from mississauga to london. traffic was moving about 20ft in an hour timespan. it was absolutely horrid. all i can now think of is the amount of gas burned and pollution generated by that crazy traffic. the article really put a new perspective on that drive for me. i'm hoping i never get into anything like that for the rest of my life. it was truly a mess.
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 30,341
Likes: 9
From: Cambridge, Ont. Canada
Originally Posted by giddyup69
i drove to london last friday to visit my buddy and got stuck in that ingersoll disaster on the 401w. took me about 5.5 hours to get from mississauga to london. traffic was moving about 20ft in an hour timespan. it was absolutely horrid. all i can now think of is the amount of gas burned and pollution generated by that crazy traffic. the article really put a new perspective on that drive for me. i'm hoping i never get into anything like that for the rest of my life. it was truly a mess.
C.
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 21,095
Likes: 47
From: Toronto, GTA north
A few years ago they were developing "no idle" systems (can't remember who)...
At stop lights etc the car would stop & then restart when you pushed the go pedal
....obviously died a subtle death
At stop lights etc the car would stop & then restart when you pushed the go pedal
....obviously died a subtle death
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 30,341
Likes: 9
From: Cambridge, Ont. Canada
Originally Posted by inTgr8r
A few years ago they were developing "no idle" systems (can't remember who)...
At stop lights etc the car would stop & then restart when you pushed the go pedal
....obviously died a subtle death
At stop lights etc the car would stop & then restart when you pushed the go pedal
....obviously died a subtle death

The article is interesting, but it does not take into account that at every stop light you hit you are idling until the light turns green. So lets say that an average stop light will be 45 seconds and you hit 20 of them because you have bad luck, late for work or an event and the shmuck in front of you is driving in between the gap of the dashboard and steering wheel. So 45 times 20 is 900 seconds eqauling 5 mins.
Lets say you are going home and some idiot on the way decides to pick his nose not paying attention to traffic and gets into an accident causing a gridlock for about 1 hour and its fridgedly cold like -32C do you:
(a) turn off the car and hope you won't turn into a human popsical?
(b) waste some gas so you can be nice and toasty and listen to the calming sounds of some schlep artist that should have been in anger management class?
(c) locate a Tauntaun slit its stomach and hide in its entrails until the jam clears up.
I personally like (B) for the sole reason that its too damn cold and its too messy after shoving your **** in some foreign object prior to getting back into the G.
In all intensive purposes you are going to idle at least 5 to 10 mins anyway and even more after some mishap on the road.
My loonies worth
Karim
Lets say you are going home and some idiot on the way decides to pick his nose not paying attention to traffic and gets into an accident causing a gridlock for about 1 hour and its fridgedly cold like -32C do you:
(a) turn off the car and hope you won't turn into a human popsical?
(b) waste some gas so you can be nice and toasty and listen to the calming sounds of some schlep artist that should have been in anger management class?
(c) locate a Tauntaun slit its stomach and hide in its entrails until the jam clears up.
I personally like (B) for the sole reason that its too damn cold and its too messy after shoving your **** in some foreign object prior to getting back into the G.
In all intensive purposes you are going to idle at least 5 to 10 mins anyway and even more after some mishap on the road.
My loonies worth
Karim
Originally Posted by EEYORE
The article is interesting, but it does not take into account that at every stop light you hit you are idling until the light turns green. So lets say that an average stop light will be 45 seconds and you hit 20 of them because you have bad luck, late for work or an event and the shmuck in front of you is driving in between the gap of the dashboard and steering wheel. So 45 times 20 is 900 seconds eqauling 5 mins.
Lets say you are going home and some idiot on the way decides to pick his nose not paying attention to traffic and gets into an accident causing a gridlock for about 1 hour and its fridgedly cold like -32C do you:
(a) turn off the car and hope you won't turn into a human popsical?
(b) waste some gas so you can be nice and toasty and listen to the calming sounds of some schlep artist that should have been in anger management class?
(c) locate a Tauntaun slit its stomach and hide in its entrails until the jam clears up.
I personally like (B) for the sole reason that its too damn cold and its too messy after shoving your **** in some foreign object prior to getting back into the G.
In all intensive purposes you are going to idle at least 5 to 10 mins anyway and even more after some mishap on the road.
My loonies worth
Karim
Lets say you are going home and some idiot on the way decides to pick his nose not paying attention to traffic and gets into an accident causing a gridlock for about 1 hour and its fridgedly cold like -32C do you:
(a) turn off the car and hope you won't turn into a human popsical?
(b) waste some gas so you can be nice and toasty and listen to the calming sounds of some schlep artist that should have been in anger management class?
(c) locate a Tauntaun slit its stomach and hide in its entrails until the jam clears up.
I personally like (B) for the sole reason that its too damn cold and its too messy after shoving your **** in some foreign object prior to getting back into the G.
In all intensive purposes you are going to idle at least 5 to 10 mins anyway and even more after some mishap on the road.
My loonies worth
Karim
Karim, I'm sure that's the choice most would make.
I think you must have left out a 1 in your calcualtion. 900 seconds= 15minutes.
Deane
Originally Posted by RBull
Karim, I'm sure that's the choice most would make.
I think you must have left out a 1 in your calcualtion. 900 seconds= 15minutes.
Deane
I think you must have left out a 1 in your calcualtion. 900 seconds= 15minutes.
Deane

Karim
hey
Originally Posted by Msedanman
Good points and all of which I agree with. I too wish everyone would do their part to curtail idling.
Sometimes at certain traffic lights I'll even turn my car off due to the length of the light, but those are ones I know and that are abnormally long winded.
I'm glad he wasn't talking about 'idling' at home-- I'm so lazy lately, I'd fail miserably at that one.
C.
Sometimes at certain traffic lights I'll even turn my car off due to the length of the light, but those are ones I know and that are abnormally long winded.
I'm glad he wasn't talking about 'idling' at home-- I'm so lazy lately, I'd fail miserably at that one.
C.
I've never turned off my engine at the lights,mind u its a little much to do so if u ask me, and maybe consider turning it off if I know its going to take 5 or more min(very rare) for the Green. but anyways As far as I know more gas consumed on the avg, to stop and start, than to let it idle for few min, is it not?
Originally Posted by G35CoupeToronto
I've never turned off my engine at the lights,mind u its a little much to do so if u ask me, and maybe consider turning it off if I know its going to take 5 or more min(very rare) for the Green. but anyways As far as I know more gas consumed on the avg, to stop and start, than to let it idle for few min, is it not?
Tim Horton's Drivethru (or any other drivethru, but Tim's has closed several "walkin and perhaps sit" stores to knock em down and put up double drivethru's.) Invariably, the lazy c...s sitting there in a line-up of 20 cars idling mean that I drive in, park, exhaust huge piles of personal calories walking all the way from my car to the door, again exert myself unnecessarily to pull open the door, then again must suffer the walk to the counter, speak in person to someone (no Dude Where's My Car speaker in between us, darnit), and repeat the exercise in reverse to return to my car, except now burdened with carrying my apple fritter and double double.
I can't think of a single useless act that uses more fuel per day than the laziness that is the proverbial drivethru.
Getting off my soapbox now.
Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays, and Cheers,
Derek
I can't think of a single useless act that uses more fuel per day than the laziness that is the proverbial drivethru.
Getting off my soapbox now.
Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays, and Cheers,
Derek




