Idling produces harmful chemicals, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that affect the cardiovascular, respiratory and visual system. When your catalytic converter is not up to temperature, typically when you are idling, it produces these emissions at higher rates than driving. This air pollution is especially damaging to children, who breath in more air per pound of body weight than adults.

Air pollution has been linked to numerous health issues, including:

• Respiratory illnesses (asthma, bronchitis, emphysema)
• Pre- and neonatal health risks (low birthweight, premature birth and infant mortality)
• Stroke
• Heart disease and heart attacks
• Behavioral conditions (ADHD)
• Cognitive issues (IQ decrements, dementia)
• Lung cancer
• Premature death

Avoid idling, especially near schools, parks and neighborhoods, to reduce health risks for young children.

Idling produces the same amount of harmful pollutants as driving – and even higher rates of pollution if your catalytic converter isn’t at operating temperature. Based on data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), transportation emissions are the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

If St. Louis Park drivers chose to cut out 8 minutes of idling per day, more than 13,000 tons of carbon dioxide could be eliminated every year – the equivalent of 1,500 homes’ energy use for one year.

According to Sustainable America, idling your car for just two minutes uses as much fuel as 1 mile of driving. This is because your engine gets zero miles per gallon (mpg) when you’re running the engine while parked. The average American spends over 16 minutes a day idling their vehicle by choice, which adds up to about 64 gallons of gas wasted annually. That’s hundreds of dollars up in smoke each year.

According to a 2015 study done by Argonne National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy, idling for more than 10 seconds wastes more gas than restarting your car. It also damages internal engine components due to decreased oil viscosity, fuel dilution and stress on the battery. The common misconception that restarting your car is more damaging to your car and uses more fuel is no longer true. Since electric ignitions became universal in the 1970s, it’s much more fuel efficient to turn your car off and restart it. In fact, the Environmental Defense Fund estimates that the added wear from frequent restarts amounts to approximately $10 a year – in comparison to the cost of wasted fuel from idling, which can be anywhere between $70 –$650 a year.

You may ask, what about when I need to warm up my car in the winter? Idling does very little to warm up your car efficiently. According to the Department of Energy, most manufacturers and auto experts instead recommend driving at slow speeds for the first few minutes to warm your car up about twice as fast. Think of it like this: are you going to warm up faster if you stand outside in the winter or just start jogging? The same is true for your vehicle.