City of Fort Collins Breathe Easy Anti-Idling Campaign [VIDEO, INTERVIEW]

Old Dogs, meet New Tricks. Recent studies conducted by the City of Fort Collins are revealing that if we are in an old habit of letting our car run when it is not actually in motion, or about to be in motion, we should change our ways. The new studies make drawing a line between points A and B pretty simple.

A) About half of Fort Collins residents gave strong support to improved air quality programs

B) Idling diminishes the quality of the air in our community

From those two statements it seems clear that it is time to stop leaving our car running while we run in to the convenience store, warming them up for excessive amounts of time in the morning, and idling while waiting for the train.

I spoke with Lucinda Smith, Senior Environmental Planner at the City of Fort Collins about the Breathe Easy Anti-idling Campaign, and she related how

We are encouraging people to turn off their engine if they are going to be sitting anywhere and not moving forward for more than 30 seconds. It's a common myth that it hurts the engine or it wastes more fuel to turn the engine off and then to restart it.

Enjoy this interview with Lucinda. We discussed many simple ways that we can not only improve our air quality but also save money and the longevity of our vehicles.