Idling By-law

Councillors have received a number of requests to revisit the idling by-law in Guelph. One of the obstacles to this is the City operated buses idling in the downtown. There have been some complications to this as the buses need to run in order to operate doors and ventilation. Staff is working on this problem and a more formal response will be forthcoming. Below is a letter encouraging the City of Guelph to adopt a three minute idling by-law.

Hello,

With all the hype about Global Warming these days I was hoping that the City
of Guelph is working on lowering their idling by-law. Right now, the by-law
allows idling for 10 minutes. This should be reduced to well under 3
minutes. Ideally idling should be allowed for only 10 seconds from April to
January, and only 2 minutes for the winter months. If people are sitting in
their car idling in the cold winters, they should go into the building and
wait. There are ways around idling.

Unfortunately, even with the by-law many people, and many City of Guelph
employees continue to idle their vehicles. Tonight, parked beside the
Trillium Waldorf School, at the north end of the city, a City of Guelph
vehicle called the “Bookmobile” ran for well over 30 minutes. It is
important to educate not only the public but also the City of Guelph staff.

I realize that there are countless issues that the council is working on. I
really have faith in this new council that they will buckle down on
environmental issues. I really hope that Global Warming is one at the top of
their list. Not only is idling something that aids in Global warming, there
are countless additional ways to cut down on the emission of carbons into
the atmosphere, some more complex than others. Today’s building practices
are a huge contribution to global warming. The chopping down of many trees
to build subdivisions, the building of houses upon houses with black roofs
and no shade in the summer and no protection from the harsh winter winds in
the winter. These common building practices aid to the increase of
electricity used by these homes and these practices need to be changed.
Trees need to be considered sacred, they consume huge amounts of carbon
dioxide with their photosynthetic processes.

Good luck with the continuous issues that arise and please keep the
environment in mind when making your decisions.

Please forward this message to the City of Guelph staff as a reminder not to
idle.

Thank you.                           JAL