One-minute idling limit chugs closer to law

Board of health pushes for a stricter rule but worries about enforcing it.

Toronto’s Board of Health has voted in favour of reducing the maximum time motorists can idle their motors without risking a $125 fine to just one minute.

The move to knock the no-idling limit down from three minutes goes next to city council at its June 8-9 meeting. If the idea is approved, the city will need to ask the province to amend legislation so parking officers can write tickets for idling and dramatically step up enforcement of a widely ignored bylaw.

The board also recommended eliminating the current exemption for idling on very cold or very hot days. And it wants to replace a clause that allows TTC vehicles to idle for up to 15 minutes with one that says transit vehicles can only run while stopped for “an identified need.”

The TTC says anti-pollution devices on its diesel buses require that the engine run for two or three minutes after the vehicle stops. In extreme cold, staff also periodically turn garaged buses on and off to ensure they’ll start when needed.

Councillor Howard Moscoe, a former TTC chair, appeared before the board, asking it to erase from the bylaw all exemptions for TTC, police and other city vehicles. He said exemptions can be known to those writing the tickets, but putting them in the bylaw creates a loophole begging to be exploited.

“The culture (at the TTC) is: Idle your vehicle whenever you want,” said Moscoe (Ward 15, Eglinton-Lawrence), who has breathing problems that prevent him from walking more than a block.

But health board members weren’t ready to go that far. Instead, they asked staff to report back to city councillors on which city vehicles need to be allowed to idle at certain times.

Moscoe also suggested asking the province to allow the “Blue Hornet” parking squad can take over enforcement of the no-idling rule. He called it “bizarre” and “pathetic” that police and transportation staff issued only 76 idling tickets last year.

Councillor Frances Nunziata also visited the board to say that idling TTC buses and garbage trucks are a terrible problem, but she fears changing the limit won’t have an impact without better enforcement.

Nunziata (York South-Weston) noted that school buses often chug away outside schools. “I think it will be impossible to enforce,” she said.

Dr. David McKeown, Toronto’s medical officer of health, said Natural Resources Canada is urging a one-minute limit, and it has already been adopted by Burlington.

His report to the board said idling wastes 90 million litres of fuel per year and injects 215 million tones of carbon dioxide into the GTA atmosphere, almost half of it in Toronto. Needlessly belching tailpipes are a significant contributor to the air pollution that contributes to 1,700 hospitalizations in Toronto each year and 440 deaths, he added.

“It should be an easy win to get rid of idling,” he told reporters, adding most car engines on the road today don’t need to be warmed up before being put gently in gear, even in cold weather.

“I understand why people don’t want to get into a warm car, but the price we pay for that is our health.”

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