Idling drivers higher fines
 

Just seen this on TV...

I didn't even know this fine existed :duh:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/i...ment-crackdown

Also...

Earn money by reporting idling drivers... :eek:

Just another tax(fine) on drivers

...... was this not always a rule/law ? Perhaps not strictly enforced.

Hmm,
Bright Blue, " right wing" think tank encouraging people to inform on each other, where have I read about that sort of behaviour before? 😱😱

Yes, it states toughen up and not before time but there are so many rules they can’t all realistically be enforced

taking your train of thought, it could be considered you are against people reporting drink drivers, you are against people reporting violent assaults they witness or sexual assaults they witness. Could you clarify your stance on the issues I have referred to?

I often see engines idling such as at level crossings and wonder why

macafee2

The cut-out when not moving and auto re-start has been tried but received bad write-ups. It seems difficult to ask for voluntary operation when the auto application is less than popular. Surely there is reduced mpg if excessive fuel is needed to start the engine? The wear on starter motors must half their life at least.

I live fairly close to school gates and we have an issue with inconsiderate parking at drop off and pick up times. I have experienced first hand the number of cars that sit with their engine running, in summer for aircon and winter for heating.
On one occasion last year I was working in my garage with the door open and the fumes from an idling engine were unbearable and I asked the driver to switch off, she looked at me as if I had two heads!
But it brought it home just how badly idling engines do effect the local environment. Our residents group are taking up the issue again with school and Council who up until now do not seem concerned.
Thanks for the link

A few years ago I was driving in Switzerland and while sat at a train crossing and a local tapped on my window and told me to turn my engine off and pointed towards the sign.

I myself never knew of such law even existed up until this evening, so as from tomorrow I will make sure I don't override/turn off the Stop/Start feature that's in our daily driver. Sometimes I tend to turn off this feature as I find it an annoyance, not so much an annoyance, but more an uncomfortable feeling as I cannot hear the engine ticking over... stupid really :duh:

Reporting idling drivers is already current in parts of America I see, exceptions are stopping at traffic lights, deicing your windscreen and idling on private property, and I'm sure there are others.

I guest engine idling for more than three minutes during an MOT test is allowed here in the UK then? :shrug:

Does this mean I can't use my FBH lol

Does this mean that all buses will have to turn their engine off at every bus stop ?

I can see why this law is difficult to enforce, that's most probably why they want to handover the responsibility to the general public, get us all to do the leg work for them. :duh:

The enforcers can then sit and wait for the video uploads to come rolling in, then dish-out the fines via the registration plates being filmed. :eek:

Brilliant idea really... :duh:

Certainly not against reporting all you've mentioned, after all I've never seen queues of people doing any of that. My point was it may be easy to walk down any queue of traffic with a camera and possibly make a living out of it by informing the relevant authority without said authority having to 'police' it themselves.

I think it is more associated with those who sit outside shops or houses waiting on people, taxis on a break. I always thought there was a guide of something like more than 3 minutes.

Ref another post earlier about mpg, and starter wear, whilst starter wear is going to be an obvious issue, a more immediate issue will be battery wear, especially sitting in traffic with the lights, and other electrical items on.

Particularly aimed outside school gates where the children are breathing in the toxic air, the next importance would be taxi ranks, shops as you say.

shouldnt be cars outside school gates! Stop, get out walk to or from school. Most accidents around schools here involving pupils and vehicles apparently have obstructed views of the colliding vehicle as a factor. Dropping off with the engine running, I have no problem with, sitting there with the engine running for 10-15 minutes at the pillar of the gate so your little cherub does not have to walk the length of themselves :o:o:o:o:o:o

But that is an argument and problem to solve by cutting wiring looms ;) for another discussion.

thank you for clarifying.
I'm sure at some point most if not all of us have left an engine idling sometimes deliberate and sometimes by accident. I'd prefer to see education used first, someone walking along the line of cars perhaps handing out a leaflet, a word in the drivers ear, media broadcasts.
Is an engine considered to be idling when stationary in a traffic jam?

macafee2

Believe it or not Steve, the buses on my routes do exactly that! Some have the stop-start technology and others some kind of dual traction, electric or diesel, where the diesel engine stops when the bus is stationary and it moves off under electric power for a short distance.

Simon

They already auto do around here. Ridiculous - They pull in to drop or collect a passenger, engine stop for a few seconds then restarts almost instantly. The stop/ start probably burns even more fuel and causes more pollution than just keeping the engine running, plus the battery recharging after a restart.

Its always been an offence to run the engine of a vehicle when stationary, other when held up in normal traffic conditions. Bus drivers included. It was considered antisocial and that many years before most people could spell environment. Chris.S.

I did once try turning the engine off whilst stationary at traffic lights, but without an automated stop / start facility it takes ages to restart.
Turn key to start engine, take car out of park and put into drive, release handbrake then pull away.

By the time you’re done all this, the driver behind has already been leaning on his horn !

Our cars are not designed to do that type of stop start. Listen to a stop start car, and they have a different tone as though their starters are a lighter weight.

Sent from my SM-A600FN using Tapatalk

I remember seeing signs for no idling while I was on holiday in Scotland 3 or 4 years ago.

It was the first I heard of it and I'm sure I read it was a local Scottish policy rather than a nation wide law.

Maybe I'm wrong or its changed recently to include the rest of the UK?

Been the case up here for some time. Frankly its a policy I have no objections to.
I was helping my mate out with his taxi business and occasionally did a council contract school run picking a kid up from a school in deepest Edinburgh. It was a nightmare, trying to get parked near the school because of Mummy picking the little darlings up in a huge Mitsubishi Shogun 4x4 or something equally practical for driving around the city.

Could not agree more Russel.

How many people (although I agree they have a point) have seen cars ticking over near a school has NOTHING to do with it whatsoever.

Council's could not care less about child health or safety.

Chris Grayling, Transport Secretary, said:

We are determined to crack down on drivers who pollute our communities by leaving their engines running, particularly outside school gates where our children are breathing in this toxic air.

I can smell that from where I am.
Anyone who believes that load of rubbish, or the fact that it has nothing to do with raking in millions in motorist fines is deluded, or at the very least not worried sick about their kids crossing the road with no warden.

All the if's and but's are what councils could do, instead of cracking down on fines that are being missed out on, and raising them into the bargain.

The same upstanding pillars of our communities are happy to axe school crossing wardens services. The school crossing wardens job outside our village infant school has just been axed.

So it is ok for a child to get knocked down or killed crossing the road outside our village infant school, as long as the child was not "breathing in this toxic air" at the time.

Makes me sick.

I'm fascinated by the expense involved in this one particular activity. National coverage by all of the media, rows in parliament and hopeless virtue signallers waving by do-gooders (as if there wasn't enough already), signage, training, advertising and so much more. All of it ineffective because so many believe the message is not for them because they 'will only be a minute'.

All it takes is one teacher, or similar official, with a lollipop type sign to patrol for 15 minutes at the right time of day along the pavement. With large camera in hand (not a phone, it has to be intimidating) and obviously discouraging the imminent destruction of mankind it wouldn't take long to stop it - at no cost.

Local councils, if they were in any way effective or really concerned, could install small bollards and double yellows to stop kerb parking. Traffic wardens could get their daily dozen, all in about 1/2 an hour, then stroll away with their ravenous hunger satisfied. Local Authority coffers would be replete and free TV licences could be reinstated for pensioners. Maybe.

And Im still amazed why any driver would think it is acceptable to run their engine other than when actually driving! But Im also amazed at pavement parkers and the "justification" given by drivers. But I am sure drivers will carry on doing these things because? well no one stops them. Chris.S.

Re-starting a modern car engine, diesel or petrol uses far less fuel than leaving it idling for 30seconds. When was the last time you pushed the accelerator to the floor while turning the key? Even for most old, carburettor cars, this was unneccesary, and caused as much wear and pollution as revving the engine before switching off to ensure the combustion chambers were charged with fuel for the next re-start.

I've always been led to believe that idling for long periods wasn't doing the engine any favours.

So who is going to fine the road works companies who leave their transit vans running all day long to power all the flashing lights ?

Quite. My pet hate is non emergency vehicles with flashing lights.

When I was in school the bus drivers used to leave their engines running on the school car park while waiting for the students to come out and get on.

They would all be parked next to each other with both doors wide open and the diesel smoke would fill the bus. it was disgusting sitting in there waiting to go. yuk

Blimey! So it begins, get a load o this :eek: Bristol council are considering banning diesel vehicles :eek:


"It would mean a ban on all privately-owned diesel vehicles together with a charging zone for non-compliant commercial vehicles such as buses, taxis, HGVs and LGVs.
A car scrappage scheme would also be launched".

https://www.localgov.co.uk/Bristol-c...vehicles/48435

Where are they planning to get the money for the scrappage scheme from :shrug:

I dare say they will charge owners of diesel vehicles in toll charges or raise the price of DERV!
I read London has just announced a £25million scrappage scheme. :shrug:

£25 million to scrap your car, I'd go for that :D

The London car scrappage scheme is for London residents - inside the north and south circular roads who are disabled or low income i.e. on benefits.

I am not on benefits but the £200 / £300 per month payments for a new eligible vehicle would make a major dent in my disposable income, so how is someone just about managing on benefits going to be able to afford the repayments ?

Their garage when they have to pay for a new DPF ! :p:

Which they then pass onto their customers ( local councils / utility companies ) who then pass it onto us ! :duh:

Stuck in yet another hour long queue at the Dartford crossing today, if they got their finger out and got on with another crossing there would not have been thousands of cars, vans and lorries all with their engines idling crawling along at one mile per hour.

But then again the government has a vested interest in making us use more fuel as that equals more tax !