Anti-idling bylaw on its way in Kelowna
After a dozen years of talking about it, studying it and consulting on it, Kelowna city council is being asked to finally put an anti-idling ban in place.
A staff report going to council on Monday, April 25, recommends that an anti-idling bylaw be presented to council by June 27 with the first, educational phase, coming into effect in late summer or early fall.
Ultimately, repeat offenders could be fined $150.
“Overall, an idling control bylaw is an effective and low-cost method to build awareness for climate objectives and to reduce local emissions by changing driver practice,” the report states.
Eighty Canadian cities, including 30 municipalities and 15 regional districts in B.C., already have such bylaws.
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The proposed new bylaw would prohibit people from idling their vehicles for more than one minute at a time in places like public garages, parking lots, drive-thru lines, pick up and drop off locations and streets.
“Natural Resources Canada states that idling for more than 10 seconds uses more fuel and produces more CO2 than restarting the engine,” the report says. “However, to balance factors such as fuel savings, emissions and component wear, 60 seconds is the recommended interval.”
There are 62,000 gas or diesel powered vehicles on Kelowna streets, the report says.
It estimates that, if drivers avoid idling for one minute per day, they will save 687,110 litres of fuel per year in the city as a whole at a cost of $1.3 million at $1.80 per litre.
That translates into $20 a year in fuel costs per vehicle.
Canadians idle six to eight minutes per day. If a person cut six minutes out of their daily idle time, they would save $118 per year in fuel costs, the report says.
Counts of idle times have been done in a number of locations.
At an unnamed drive-thru test site, it was found that 96% of vehicles idled for an average of four minutes and 12 seconds. At the airport, the average was three minutes, 46 seconds for 49% of the vehicles observed.
The rules would not apply to zero emission vehicles, hybrid vehicles in the electric motor assist mode and vehicles in traffic.
There are exemptions for things like emergency vehicles, races, parades and heating or refrigerating perishable cargo.
Staff recommend that enforcement be done mostly through education.
“As with the majority of the City’s bylaws, an idling regulation would be complaint-based,” the report says. “Other complaint-based bylaws receive a considerable number of complaints per year, but only a few are directed to a bylaw officer for investigation and possible enforcement.”
Staff estimate that fewer than 10 repeat offenders will have to be contacted by bylaw officers and face fines of $150.
Most complaints would be handled by an air quality coordinator sending out letters to inform drivers that complaints had been filed.
Strict enforcement is difficult.
“Investigations with a view of considering potential charges include more than simply obtaining a license number, but a statement from a witness willing to testify in a court/adjudication proceeding,” the report says.
It would be difficult to enforce the rules on out of province vehicles and, once a vehicle is in motion, bylaw officers are not able to intervene.
While police could enforce the rules, idling would not meet a “priority” threshold, the report says.
That means idling complaints would be handled similar to those made against people breaking water restriction rules or producing excess smoke from wood stoves.
Wood stoves generate 30 complaints a year but only an average of two per year are sent to bylaws for action, the report says.
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