Despite the £10 daily congestion charge, London took the No. 1 spot as the most congested European city last year in a list compiled by map provider Navteq. As a result, the Energy Saving Trust is urging drivers of cars without auto start/stop systems to kill their engines when they’re not moving.
London Mayor Boris Johnson has also started an ‘anti-idling’ campaign to make sure the city meets the PM10 particulate pollution limits. As such he has allowed several boroughs in the city to fine long-time idlers up to £80. We wonder how long is a ‘long time,’ and just how they are going to enforce this, if at all.
Transport for London released a study showing that if all drivers in city centre turned off their idling engines for one minute when stationary, CO2 emissions would be reduced by 100 million kg.
Indeed, the devil makes money for idle engines.
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Idiot, cars without auto start stop are not equipped with a starter strong enough for repeated engine cranking.
they can opt for cycling when the weather is cold…
not like here, hot through out the year… or raining non stop…
I do that when the weather is cold… doing it under Malaysia’s hot weather is gonna kill u…
However somebody should invent some aftermarket Auto start-stop kit, which will include additional battery to power the air cond/accessories when the engine is off.. then recharge it when we’re driving or braking…
That’s basically a Hybrid Car already
I believe JY is referring to an aftermarket fitting of a starter/alternator. If it was easy, most ah beng workshops would be doing that already. Even though Delphi has starter/alternator combos and phase change materials in evaporators to overcome the need of larger battery packs (hence weight) to power the ac system in hybrids, the corresponding electronics to have a imperceptible start stop is something that is not easy to plug and play into older cars. Having said that even BMW’s start stop in the F10 520d is not as smooth as my wife’s little Honda.
Agreed. the auto stop/start in my CRZ auto is very smooth, almost unnoticeable unless you look into the centre meter and on the N/S highway to Penang I am getting 16.5 km/l without having to try hard, travelling between 100 to 126km/hr,that’s what I call Fun Driving Pleasure
Yeah not easy (leave that to the professors or engineers), but it would be a very useful upgrade for millions of old car owners to be greener.. :)
The worst offender for idling engines in Malaysia are police cars.
and taxis of coz..
in malaysia, idling engine is not an offense.
And the school mommies who sit in their cars waiting for their precious kids. Boris Johnson has a good idea but we Malaysians are pointing at the wrong place – its the design of the roads that are not good. If we only had forward thinking leaders but to find a solution needs a smart leader – again impossible.
That’s why Top Gear always bash Boris Johnson!
This is a stupid idea perhaps if you are in a SPORT CAR!
Maybe in the hybrids it’s ok. But for normal cars… First thing to die is the battery. Car battery prices is rocketing like nobody’s business. Maybe perodua and proton can follow with hybrid cars in Malaysia
London jam is still ok. Nothing compares with jakarta or bangkok. Even our jalan tun razak jam on heavy rain downpour during rush hour is even worse….
And I thought Malaysian Legislation is bad enough… It seems that the UK is selling cars for bargain, but introduces many small fees that would amass to big amount over the long run, not to mention too the expensive fuel price and the cut-throat income tax regime. Their government is smart too when it comes to sucking money out of the people’s pocket.
In a way, I feel lucky to be Malaysian (for now lah!)
I do turn off air conditioner and engine when weather is ok or during the night to save my pocket rather than the earth.
we care more about battery and starter than the air we breath …
life of battery is between 12 to 21 months (warranty period) and cost about RM250 … we better make sure we can get extra few month from this …so no frequent start stop for us …
same with our starter …
air is not so important .. plus if we pollute it a bit, its nothing compare to busses, lorry, etc…
1kg is already heavy, no imagine 100 million kg.
this is something that many malaysians do not realise.
in places like California which is so polluted, only LEV cars or ZEV can be used there. we are still lucky, but slowly malaysia is heading there (the big cities like KL, penang, JB).
when there are too much smog in the atmosphere, it traps heat. the same goes to carbon dioxide. this is why in KL at 10pm we will still feel a bit warm. but in the forest (when trees exchange CO2 in oxygen) it gets cold as early as 8pm.
when the earth traps heat, temperature increased. no need much, 1 degree Celcius in every 3 years will do.
this is the reason we feel the sunshine is stronger than it was 20 years ago. the iceberg melts, raising sea level. this is reason why some beaches had disappeared. when iceberg melted, there are more water which became heavier rain and worsening flood disaster.
we can see places like australia suffering from great flood. and remember thailand a year ago? they never had such disaster for over 50 years. now, ask ourselves – where all the water ccame from?
the answer is melting icebrg. do our part, save the earth.