Waiting for the flagger to turn her sign on Gibson Hill Road a few days ago.
Among the questions that arise when we’re stuck in a queue of vehicles waiting for a flagger to let us proceed, there is this one: Is it better to keep the engine idling, or to turn it off.
If I keep the ignition on and the engine keeps humming away, you say to yourself, I’m wasting fuel without making any progress. Now that we pay well north of five bucks per gallon, it’s something to think about.
On the other hand, doesn’t restarting the engine use more gas than letting it idle for a while?
As luck would have it, we don’t have to rely on intuition for an answer. We can rely instead on scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory, an arm of the U.S. Department of Energy. And Google gives us access to the lab’s results on this very question: “Which is greener: Idle, or stop and restart?”
“You should shut off your engine,” an analyst named Linda Gaines advises. “Unless you drive a vintage, carburetor-equipped vehicle, you’ll save fuel and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by turning it off.
“Some drivers think that idling uses less fuel than restarting, but our research has found that drivers save fuel and reduce emissions by shutting down for stops as brief at 10 seconds.”
The construction crew and the flaggers on Gibson Hill Road in North Albany do the best they can to keep traffic moving, but during busy times of the day the lines of stopped vehicles can get pretty long.
So when we’re sitting there, it pays to wait with the engine off. (hh)
“You should shut off your engine” reflects a belief that there is only one right way to deal with this situation.
And it implies that if we don’t adapt or change, then something is wrong with us (not those like you who ‘know’ the right way).
Dr. Tema Okun teaches that this this type of thinking is characteristic of white supremacy culture. She calls the culture a “devastating force in all of our lives.”
https://www.dismantlingracism.org/uploads/4/3/5/7/43579015/okun_-_white_sup_culture.pdf
“Sense of urgency” is another characteristic of our white supremacy culture according to Dr. Okun. The Oregon Health Authority reinforced the same.
https://reason.com/2022/07/02/urgency-is-a-white-supremacy-value-oregon-health-authority/
In the future, as a ruling class power broker, please pause and give more consideration to how the little things you write may promote white supremacy values with your audience.
GS
This reads like a Vonnegut fragment.
“Unstuck in time” comes to mind.
So interesting that Gordon is letting Hasso know that he has written this article wrong and should change. If Hasso doesn’t get on board with Gordon’s way, he is wrong… If thinking that there is one right way to think or act, and everyone should get on board is racist—Gordon is quite the racist. :)
Hybrid vehicles do this automatically.
Same thing for when you’re waiting at a train crossing.
You may save gas by turning the engine off but you are doing much more damage to the engine by doing so. The most damaging part of running an internal combustion engine is the turning it on.
When an engine is off there is no internal oil pressure. Oil is what protects the bearings and other vital components of the engine. Oil pressure takes a few milliseconds to build up. Multiply that many times over and you can have unnecessary wear on the engine. I once had a car that lost a bearing on the crank shaft on start up because of low oil pressure. That cost me a bundle to get fixed.
I now have a car that has the engine start stop feature. Whenever the car stops, the engine automatically turns off. When I take my foot off the brake the engine starts again. This feature was created to save gas. Studies show that cars with this feature go through batteries and starter motors faster. As is the case with most things nothing is free. Luckily, that feature can be turned off which is what I do for all the above reasons.
OTOH, is the wear & tear on the starter motor worth it? If you’re driving an old beater, every restart may start with a prayer.
Most new cars (within 10 years) could handle constant restarts without any issues. Some cars, as mentioned hybrids and even gasoline cars, already shut down when in idle mode.
Hey…Barney Rubble (Flint Stones) never had a problem. He just waddled away.
The brainiacs who try to release these dicta have failed (as usual) to account for ancillaries such as the resultant battery, starter and alternator replacement rates…engine wear and possible increased emmisions…never mind the fact that all engines are not the same….the traffic snarls from engines that fail to restart…but new laws are always a good idea….let’s do it….yay!
Who’s talking about a “new law”?