Leaving vehicle engines idling is unhealthy, expensive – and often illegal

A Boston bus company has agreed to pay five point six million dollars to settle a lawsuit over leaving its buses idling in residential neighborhoods. The Conversation reports that the settlement came under the Clean Air Act, which allows citizens to sue polluters for environmental harm. Massachusetts limits vehicle idling to just five minutes, but the buses violated this regularly. Vehicle emissions caused nearly forty-two thousand deaths in the U.S. last year — more than four people every hour — and idling contributes directly to that pollution. Research shows that after ten seconds, the fuel burned from idling costs more than turning the engine off would save, yet many drivers leave engines running for convenience. Cities from New York to Chicago have enacted anti-idling laws, with New York's citizen-reporting program proving surprisingly effective: reports jumped from four hundred fifty-five violations in twenty seventeen to over eighty thousand by twenty twenty-three.

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