Excessive Idling Bylaw

So after months of work and public meetings the City of Edmonton finally got together an excessive idling bylaw. The bylaw has plans to limit idling to 3 minutes in temperatures above minus 10 and to use public reports to catch violators. However after some debate the city has decided that it will opt for education over enforcement and shelve the bylaw for the forseeable future. I guess we'll continue to see the parking lots full of empty vehicles all chugging away so that drivers don't have to get into a chilly car.

Anti Idling Bylaw for the City of Edmonton: After the forum

Well I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the turn out for the public forum. Most of the people there did seem to be ardent environmentalists who will never, and have never, left their car idle, let alone drove it when they could walk instead. While I understand their points on how the city should go, to a very green future with no idling at all. On the other hand if you try to get an anti idling law passed you need to know that it's important to start somewhere even if it's with a pretty basic bylaw.

The meeting did have an agenda of going through different ideas that a bylaw could contain such as whether it should apply to all vehicles, whether it should apply differently to occupied and unoccupied vehicles, and whether it should apply in all weather conditions. The conversations tended to all flow on the side of having a bylaw and how strict it should be. The majority of people there seemed to be on the much stricter side of the fence, while I was trying to find a more moderate approach. I come down on the idling at a 3 minute restriction (it's long enough without being too long) , no restriction in traffic (it's dangerous to turn your car off in the middle of a road), no idling when the vehicle is unoccupied (you're not in it why is it running) , and no weather restrictions (It's too confusing to run around with a temperature gauge). Though some at the meeting wanted it to be 30 seconds under all conditions even stopped at a traffic light.

The proposed bylaw will be available to the public by the end of the month and a public meeting will follow for people to have their input. I'll post more when it's available.

The ancipation in the media couldn't be cut with a Chainsaw.

Well if there's one group that's excited about another election it's the Media. The joy of covering everything from debates to whistle stop tours is a joy that resounds across all the channels. Though I'll have to admit that it will be kinda nice to hear something political other than the coronation of Obama.

Of course on the bad side we'll have to sit through endless ads about what they'll claim they never really promised if actually elected. While I'm not a big fan of the US style attack ads it is kinda funny to see an ad that just says "My opponent is a terrible person who kills puppies" and never mentions anything about what the guy paying for the ad is doing or plans to do.

Of course the Greens and NDP can promise anything they like in their commercials because the chance of them forming a majority government is about the same as of John McCain being a cover model for a swimsuit issue. An energy efficient society by 2012 sure it's not like we'll ever have to weasel our way out of doing it.

As for the Liberals well it's pretty much a toss up. If they had a more dynamic leader (read anyone other than Stephan Dion) They'd probably have a good shot. But since they don't Harper would have to do something reallllllly crazy to not get back in with at least a minority government.

Fog Lights

So with Gas Prices heading towards 2$ a litre every radio station, tv station and website is spending hours, or pages, telling people how to save gas. Everything from removing weight from your car 1-5%, using a lighter foot on the gas pedal 10-35%, or keeping your tires inflated 1-10%. All of these strategies tend to increase milage just slightly which is always good. The issue I have is that I see soooooo many people driving around with their fog lights on, and I can't understand why, having those lights on will reduce your gas mileage just the same are removing some small amount of weight from the car and they can be turned off with the flick of a switch and not require you to remove your safety kit from the car. The other thing is that it's just annoying to have some one in their big truck come up behind you and bathe the whole of your car in the light of all the lamps in front of the truck. It may also be Illegal in some areas. I would love to see car manufacturers take the lead on this they can make cars in which all maner of things have to be turned on each time you start the car, cruise control, defoggers etc. but for some reason they have left the fog lights (something you almost never really need) as a fixed switch that is on forever if you never turn it off. well here's hoping that someone will make that kind of change in a car/truck and stop the blinding/resorce wasting.