there ought to be a law against idling vehicles

On one hand, response to my turn off your vehicle, please cards has been tremendous: folks at last Friday's Jackson Green Actions event took over 400 of the cards to put on offending vehicles around the valley; and, a friend of a friend in Seattle wants cards to put on the hundreds of vehicles that idle daily in Puget Sound ferry lines.

On the other hand, I haven't noticed an appreciable decrease in offending vehicles. In fact, on Saturday morning, I "carded" the massive diesel pickup truck of one upstanding citizen I saw at the Green Actions event on Friday! And, on my way to a meeting on Monday morning, I drove through town and counted 11 unattended idling vehicles on Pearl Street.

For as satisfying and as much fun as the grassroots carding effort has been, I honestly think it's going to take the long arm of the law to change the behavior of folks who are so addicted to convenience and comfort that they'll leave their vehicle running in spite of knowing better and/or being politely asked to turn off their vehicle.

While doing research for my original rant on this topic, I discovered an online compendium of idling ordinances. I learned that many cities and states across the country strictly regulate how long vehicles (personal and commercial) can idle and typically set an escalating schedule of fines for repeat offenders.

FYI, Aspen, the municipality most like Jackson, limits idling to five minutes within any hour, with penalties of up to a $1,000 fine or one year in jail.

Given the contentious nature of local politics, I can only imagine how controversial a proposal to legally restrict how long a vehicle could idle in Teton County would be.

If I can figure out how to get this topic on the Town and/or County political agenda, stay tuned for the fireworks.

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