(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - City council has voted unanimously to approve a bylaw amendment that would restrict all motor vehicles within the City of Kamloops to three minutes of idling.

The amendment, which is part of the Good Neighbour Bylaw, had previously only applied to commercial vehicles idling in residential areas. 

“We are late coming to this party,” Coun. Tina Lange says. “Engines today, they don’t need to idle for more than three minutes, so I am very happy to vote.”

The amendment will help reduce noise pollution and air pollution as well as people’s exposure to air pollution, says Glen Cheetham, the city’s sustainability services supervisor.

Cheetham says the educational component of the new idling restriction will work to inform drivers on how reducing unnecessary idling can help sustain a healthy environment for the city.

"We encourage people to look at the owner's manuals of their vehicles, most of them suggest that (vehicles) only need about 30 seconds to warm up," he says. 

However, some councillors expressed concern the bylaw amendment did not consider extreme weather or situations where a person or an animal may need to stay in a vehicle. 

"There should be a reasonable expectation given our climate," Coun. Denis Walsh, adding there may be situations where an elderly person may choose to stay in a vehicle because of mobility issues and the three-minute idling rule would not be enough time on days of extreme heat or cold.

Cheetham says the bylaw did not discuss climate or comfort because of the issues around defining these variables.

The city’s bylaw services manager John Ramsay says bylaw officers will mainly respond to public complaints of prolonged unnecessary idling and enforcement will be the last step. He says officers responding to idling complaints will asses and evaluate each situation before resorting to hand out a $100 fine.

The city has also allocated $20,000 as part of a 12-month educational campaign to inform the public of the environmental impact from unnecessary idling.

There is a list of exceptions where the bylaw does not apply including situations where emergency vehicles need to idle for operational use, traffic conditions where the driver has no control.

For more information on idling or the full list of exceptions from the bylaw, go here.

— This story was updated at 4:13 p.m. on Tuesday, June 19, 2018 to include more information on the idling restriction bylaw amendment.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Karen Edwards or call (250) 819-3723 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2018