Dan might be interested to know that things have changed a bit for truckers since his dad was on the road. First of all, both diesel engine design and fuel formulation have improved a bit so that cold-starting is no longer so much of a problem.
Secondly, while noise was the reported reason behind this, another good reason to stop idling is the air quality. Anyone who watched the news, read the newspaper or simply ventured outside in the past few days had to know that the air quality in the metro area was absolutely awful - reportedly the worst in 25 years. The chief contributor to that poor air quality was an accumulation of fine particles (known as PM 2.5) that built up under a temperature inversion. A major source of these particles is diesel engines. Since we cannot control the weather, we have to focus on what we can control, which is how much crap we spew into the air. One thing that Dan and others might be interested to know is that more and more truck stops around the country are starting to feature Idle-Aire services (http://www.idleaire.com/) that allow truckers to have heat or AC and various other amenities without idling their trucks. While not yet available in Minneapolis, perhaps one thing Council might do instead of or in conjunction with an anti-idling ordinance is find somewhere to set something like this up for truckers to use when they stay overnight in Minneapolis. I'm pretty sure most truckers would jump at the opportunity to make use of such a service rather than waste several gallons of fuel from idling their trucks overnight. Mark Snyder Windom Park On 2/3/05 9:34 PM, "Dan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Did anybody at the city council bother to ask truckers WHY they leave their > trucks idling? My dad was an over the road trucker, and left his rig running > over-night in the winter for two very good reasons. 1. Truckers live in > their truck. They sleep in there. The truck may appear empty, but there is > probably someone sleeping in the birth, which is a seperate compartment > behind the cab that can be sealed off for privacy. Sometimes they are above > the cab, and still others have their own entrance from outside, looking like > a utility door. Shut the truck off, and no heat. Would you like to sleep in > your car in the winter with no heat? 2. Diesel Fuel turns to gel in very > cold weather, and trucks may not restart if left overnight in the winter. > There are two grades of diesel, one being formulated for cold weather, but > do you think a trucker coming up from texas has tanks full of winter blend? > This only passed a committee, right? If I read the story right this is not > yet an ordinance. I hope council members and the mayor will investigate the > matter further, and actually talk to some truckers before making a hasty > decision. The trucks are not violating noise laws according to the article, > and they have been moved away from houses, so what's the problem here? > Global Warming, I bet. All that wasted fuel! Evil giant trucks!!! Just like > SUVs, but bigger!!! Let a guy make a living already. > > Dan McGrath > Longfellow > http://www.smokeoutgary.org REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
