The ‘10 Mississippis’ of Idling

The Palisadian-Post has teamed up with locally founded environmental nonprofit Resilient Palisades to deliver a weekly “green tip” to readers.

Even though we are seeing an increase in electric vehicles on the road, approximately 75% of our cars in California are still running on 100% fossil fuels, according to the California New Car Dealers Association. Tailpipe exhaust is the biggest source of local smog, and a significant emitter of particulate “soot” and climate-changing gases.

But until we all ditch our tailpipes, a very easy and effective way to reduce the output of exhaust (which has been linked to asthma, lung damage, heart disease and environmental impacts) is to be mindful of idling, which is any instance when you’re running your vehicle but not moving.

Idling is generating around 30 million tons of CO2 every year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. That’s because running your car while not moving emits unburned fuel, oxides of nitrogen and carbon monoxide in larger particulate forms that are far more harmful to our health and the environment. If you’re worried about wasting your time or wasting more fuel by turning off your car for a few quick seconds, know this: Idling for more than 10 seconds uses more fuel and produces more smog-forming and climate-changing emissions than stopping and restarting your engine does, according to USDOE. Here are three easy instances to be especially of idling:

Turn off your car when you’ve pulled over to text, wait on takeout, sit at a very long red light or do anything else that doesn’t include driving.

Reduce your kids’ and neighbors’ exposure to tailpipe pollution by never idling in places with a lot of pedestrians, including street-side restaurants and school pickup and drop-off zones.

Those of us who grew up watching our parents warm up their car while idling—this is actually a very ineffective way to warm up the car engine. Your vehicle is made up of many moving parts, so a better way to warm your transmission, tires, suspension, steering and wheel bearings is to simply drive off slowly. Your car tends to warm up faster this way, according to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

So, remember: If you’re going to idle for more than 10 Mississippis, it’s more efficient to shut off your car … no matter how many more Mississippis you’re going to be.