No time to idle
Vt. activist is driven to turn off parked vehicles
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Wayne Michaud Albert J. Marro / Rutland Herald |
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By KEVIN O'CONNOR
Staff Writer - Published: September 28, 2008
Starksboro graphic artist Wayne Michaud has a message for anyone who has yet to take action against gas prices or global warming: Stop idling.
Michaud recalls the day three years ago when, parked at a trash drop-off, he saw a minivan sitting with its engine running for more than 10 minutes. Surrounded by rubbish, he knew that was a bigger waste.
"Idling gets 0 miles per gallon."
Instead, it burns up gas and money and belches out toxic fumes and noise.
"I had noticed vehicles idling before, but that was the tipping point. I had this transformation."
Michaud complained in a letter to the editor to the local newspaper and contacted the Chittenden Solid Waste District. Soon he saw his words in print and heard that the district would prohibit its trucks from idling and post signs in hopes others would follow.
"It really surprised me — it got results. I felt like one person could really accomplish something."
And so Michaud created the grass-roots Idle-Free VT campaign. Working out of his home, the 60-year-old husband and father has neither funding nor official nonprofit status. Even so, his volunteer efforts are paying off.
His www.idlefreevt.org Web site has won endorsement from the American Lung Association, the Sierra Club and the Vermont Public Interest Research Group. The state Department of Motor Vehicles has agreed to distribute Idle-Free VT fliers in its offices. And having pushed for a new law that prohibits Vermont's 1,800 school buses from idling, Michaud is about to launch a March town meeting drive for more local and state action.
Try this at home
Michaud isn't your typical activist. For years he served quietly as a Meals on Wheels helper and member of the Lung Association's state advocacy committee. Then, in 2005, he accepted an invitation to join the Addison County Relocalization Network, a citizens' coalition promoting energy conservation and community revitalization.
That's when Michaud stopped at the trash drop-off. He long had shut off his car while waiting in parking lots and drive-through lanes.
"My wife and son would say, 'Dad, why are you doing that?' I'd say, 'I want to save gas.'"
Michaud wondered why others didn't. Searching the Internet, he discovered anti-idling campaigns in other parts of the country and in Canada. He particularly appreciated a precedent-setting effort in Lenox, Mass., where volunteers distributed fliers, drummed up media coverage and demanded local and state laws.
Michaud decided to try this at home. The graphic artist set up a Web site to illustrate the problem and solution.
He begins with some basic facts: Any more than 10 seconds of idling, government studies show, uses more fuel than it takes to restart an engine. Worried about wear on your starter or battery? Run a parked vehicle more than 30 seconds and, according to current prices, you'll spend more on gas than in potential repair costs.
Idling also creates carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and benzene. That not only can poison the air, but also weave with other gases in the atmosphere to create a molecular blanket that traps heat from the sun, which in turn causes global warming and warps precipitation and wind patterns.
"At the very least," Michaud says, "this threatens Vermont's ski, maple sugaring and tourism industries."
Vermont's greenhouse-gas emissions are the lowest of the 50 states, according to federal figures, mostly because two-thirds of the state's electricity is generated by Hydro-Quebec dams in Canada and the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon. But as a result, transportation accounts for 46 percent of the state's emissions, compared to 26 percent nationally.
As Michaud sees it, if each of Vermont's more than 550,000 registered vehicles reduced its idling by five minutes a day, the state's total carbon dioxide emissions would drop by 50,000 tons a year.
'Save taxpayers money'
Michaud's Web site now receives 2,000 visits a month. But his campaign is making a bigger impact off the information superhighway.
Idle-Free VT helped lobby for a new state law last year that prohibits buses from idling on school property. Michaud joined with students and other supporters to argue that an engine running in a parking lot just five minutes a day wastes about 7.5 gallons of diesel fuel a year. Multiply that by 1,800 buses and the statewide cost adds up to more than 36,000 gallons annually.
"That law's going to save taxpayers money," Michaud says.
Before the campaign, only Burlington had any local ban on idling (the state's largest city prohibits it for any more than five minutes from April 1 to Nov. 1, except for vehicles with refrigeration units or passengers with health or safety concerns). Today, the towns of Brattleboro, Middlebury, Newfane, Plainfield, Putney and Richmond have adopted resolutions to discourage idling.
Michaud also is pushing his message in the business community. He points to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, one of several Vermont companies that have adopted idling policies.
The Waterbury-based coffee producer discovered its medium-duty trucks were idling 30 percent of their running time. But after educating its drivers, the company cut that figure to 10 percent, saving 5,000 gallons of fuel a year — or 4 percent of its previous usage.
"That's a really great example of how businesses can save money," Michaud says. "Bottom line, they want to make a profit."
Other Vermont companies with truck-idling policies include Black River Produce, Hannaford supermarkets and United Parcel Service. And several banks, including Merchants Bank and the Vermont State Employees Credit Union, have posted signs discouraging idling at their drive-up ATMs. (The credit union is letting Idle-Free VT share its sign template with other interested businesses.)
What about winter?
Michaud finds most drivers don't need much convincing. But what does he say to a cold commuter who wants to warm up the carpool vehicle in the winter?
Vermonters may need to idle their engines a minute or two if the temperature is below zero, Michaud allows. Otherwise, he says, it's better to bundle up and buy a window scraper and de-icer (or blend a cup of water and a cup of vinegar in a spray bottle) rather than run the motor, heater and defroster too long before driving.
"Keep in mind that idling only warms the engine, not the wheel bearings, steering, suspension, transmission and tires," the Idle-Free VT Web site adds. "These parts also need to be warmed up, and the only way to do that is to drive the vehicle."
Michaud discourages the use of remote starters, as they can lead to unnecessary idling. He favors engine-block heaters that can be timed to turn on an hour or two before a drive, lessening starter and battery strain, warm-up time and fuel consumption.
(Better yet, Michaud suggests switching to a gas/electric hybrid vehicle, as such models seldom idle. He drives a Toyota Prius with the license plate "peakoil.")
What if you're waiting in a fast-food drive-through lane? Michaud suggests parking your vehicle and walking inside, giving you exercise instead of exhaust. But if you must stay behind the wheel, he points to Canadian studies that show that turning an engine on and off up to six times a day won't shorten the life of the starter motor and battery and instead will save fuel.
As personal verification, Michaud points to the 1997 Subaru Legacy Outback he drove 214,000 miles. Even with all his shutoffs, he never had to replace the car's original starter.
'Consider the cost'
Michaud can cite a few good reasons for idling: A baby, elder or pet may need a car's heater or air conditioner, and an emergency or armored vehicle must keep its equipment running. But he says most drivers have options.
"If it's too cold to sit in a parked vehicle with the engine off, if at all possible, seek warmth inside a building," he says. "Likewise, if it's too hot, find a shady parking spot and open windows, or go inside a building to keep cool. Everybody wants to have comfort. But we have to consider the cost of what we're doing."
In this in-between season, Michaud is encouraging Vermonters to circulate petitions to place an advisory article on their March town meeting warnings.
(Some of the suggested language on his Web site: "We as citizens and stewards of both the present and future environment will eliminate unnecessary vehicle idling by turning off our engines when picking up and dropping off children at school, stopping at the post office and stores, parking to drop off recycling and trash, visiting drive-through windows and ATMs, pulling over to talk on cell phones, and all other situations that will involve idling for more than 30 seconds when parked or not in traffic on a public thoroughfare.")
Michaud also is promoting an online petition asking the Vermont Legislature to adopt a motor vehicle idle-reduction law similar to those in Hawaii or Massachusetts, where running your engine for more than five minutes can cost $100 for a first offense and $500 after that.
And Michaud wants Congress to push U.S. vehicle manufacturers to use "stop-start" technology now found in some European models so gas engines will automatically shut off and restart at stoplights.
Government leaders are starting to listen. The Vermont Agency of Transportation has tapped Michaud to speak with employees working on energy conservation. And the state Department of Motor Vehicles is stocking Idle-Free VT fliers at its six regional offices.
"Given the rising price of fuel and all the discussions of global warming, we thought the timing was good to put those out there," says Howard Deal, motor vehicles deputy commissioner. "His approach is a solid one to raise public awareness. It's just simple steps one can take. That caught our eye."
So far Michaud has produced all his publicity for about $1,000, thanks to a handful of donors including "my mother, some kind person in Rhode Island" and the Sierra Club. Some observers have suggested he turn his volunteer campaign into an official nonprofit organization. But he instead hopes that drivers, business owners and government leaders will take up the cause.
"I have a lot of other things going on in my life," the graphic artist says. "My time is just limited."
He doesn't have time to idle.
Contact Kevin O'Connor at kevin.oconnor@rutlandherald.com.