Powerful needs keep Vancouver police idling

I read an interesting article from the Vancouver Sun today. I totally agree with this because I think everyone should contribute a little to the community to a cleaner environment. The problem is not going to solve itself and pointing finger or waiting for someone else to do something about it first is not the solution either. We all need to take action now!

Title: Powerful needs keep Vancouver police idling
Published: Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Vancouver has a bylaw prohibiting the idling of engines. I recently passed two of Vancouver’s police cars stopped beside one another. The occupants of the cars were having a break, windows down, chit-chatting away. Their engines were idling, so I pointed out that Vancouver has a no-idling bylaw.

The reply was that they need the alternators turning to generate power for the electrics, especially the emergency flashing lights. That I can understand, but there was no emergency. An officer then said they needed to keep their laptops on in case they were summoned for an emergency. Now, they may be special rugged laptops, but regular laptops can run for an hour or more on their small internal batteries and a police cruiser has a behemoth of a 12-volt lead acid battery under the hood. I suspect such a battery could run a laptop for a month or more.

Let everyone obey our bylaws and help keep our air cleaner.

STEPHEN OTTRIDGE
Vancouver

© The Vancouver Sun 2008