November 15, 2008   Editorial

Hardly an idle step

Like ragged breathing, the process for arriving at a measure to reduce carbon dioxide and other dangerous emissions from idling vehicles has been labored in Westchester. Finally, though, after Rockland succeeded last year, the county has arrived at an anti-idling law making it illegal for almost all drivers to keep their vehicles running for three minutes or more while parked. It is a welcome step that also makes county and local police responsible for enforcement.

County Executive Andrew Spano was expected to sign the bill immediately, and it will take effect 90 days after that. Under it, violators will face fines of up to $250. Given that it is well-established that idling vehicles not only waste gas but contributes greatly to dangerous air quality - the county and the region have been given largely failing grades by monitoring groups - the new no-idling law should be a welcome addition in a long line of attempts to get drivers to turn their vehicles off while waiting, and polluting.

The Westchester bill broadens an existing anti-idling ban, enacted in 2006, that prohibits diesel vehicles like trucks and buses from running while parked. Importantly, thanks to the new law, that prohibition no longer is under the auspices of the county Health Department, where, lawmakers said, it was rarely enforced.

County Legislator Thomas Abinanti, D-Greenburgh, the new law's sponsor, has long been active on a variety of environment and energy committees that have attempted to attack environmental health problems associated with pollution. A Healthy Air Task Force he created in 2004 recommended many steps to clean the air and help reduce global warming.

In 2007, Rockland County enhanced its Sanitary Code idling law by making it a criminal offense to leave a vehicle idling more than three minutes. Putnam does not have such a law. However, a 2007 law limiting idling of school buses and other school vehicles while parked on school grounds or in front of schools applies to all school districts in the state.

Emissions from vehicles can contain pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and microscopic particles of soot and other material that can lodge deep in human lungs, causing and aggravating serious health problems. They also help overheat the atmosphere.

As self-evident as the need for the law is, it took some doing this year for the Westchester legislature to finalize it due to concerns from police and emergency responders that it would interfere with the jobs they do and vital equipment in their vehicles. As a result, emergency workers are exempt from the law, as are hybrid and electric cars as well as any business that needs to keep its engine running for key operations like an ice cream truck, staff writer Gerald McKinstry reported.

The irony of needing to exempt some vehicles wasn't lost on officials like Anthony Sutton, Westchester's commissioner of emergency services. "We understand, we recognize, we share your concerns,'' he told the Board of Legislators in early October. "So much of what EMS does is respond to people with respiratory problems.'' However, he said, climate control within such vehicles is necessary.

Some cynics will complain - as they always do - that such a measure will be hard to enforce, just as it's hard to enforce prohibitions against cell phone chatting and texting while driving. But sometimes people follow the law because (1) it's the law and (2) the prohibition is just and proper. That's the case here. We hope motorists will respond accordingly.