Anti-idling signage could be effective alternative to bylaw, report suggests
A bylaw cracking down on unnecessary idling by vehicles in Saskatoon would prove expensive and tough to enforce, a new city report says.
The report that will be presented to a city council committee Monday says the City of Saskatoon could implement a law restricting idling, but suggests education and signs might be effective and cheaper.
“A vehicle idling bylaw would involve considerable resources and be difficult and costly to enforce,” says the report that will be considered by the environment, utilities and corporate services committee. “As a practice, the city does not enact bylaws that cannot be enforced.”
The report points out most bylaws are enforced on a complaint basis, but that determining guilt for violating a prescribed idling limit would require more time and resources. The report references the city’s noise bylaw as an example that requires more resources to enforce.
Edmonton introduced an antiidling bylaw in 2013 that prohibits vehicles idling outside of hospitals and schools for longer than five minutes when the temperature is above 0 C. The fine is $250.
No tickets have been successfully prosecuted under the Edmonton bylaw, the Saskatoon report says.
Calgary has posted signs in certain areas discouraging idling, resulting in an 80 per cent reduction in complaints, the report says.
If idling were reduced each week by as little as 10 minutes per vehicle, it could reduced greenhouse has emissions by 7,500 tonnes for 200,000 vehicles, the report says. The report adds there were 256,737 vehicles registered in Saskatoon in 2014.
The report estimates it could
A vehicle idling bylaw would involve considerable resources and be difficult and costly to enforce.
cost $275,000 to $305,000 a year to implement and enforce a bylaw, while a sign-based approach could cost $75,000 to $105,000.
Efforts to implement an antiidling bylaw date back to 2006 in Saskatoon when former city councillor Terry Alm asked city hall administration to investigate the possibility. That effort stalled, but the city did implement limits on idling for municipal vehicles.
In 2016, the Saskatchewan Environmental Society (SES) included an anti-idling bylaw in 21 recommendations made to Saskatoon city council. The SES proposed a three-minute limit on idling when the temperature was above 0 C.
SES policy co-ordinator Hayley Carlson said the organization still supports a bylaw and would like to see more detailed information about the results a bylaw could achieve. “A bylaw needs education to be successful, but education needs a bylaw to achieve results,” Carlson said in an interview Thursday. “All the research suggests laws and bylaws achieve much more robust results in reducing greenhouse gases.”
Climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions is not the only concern, Carlson said, as air quality in Saskatoon has also been declining over the last decade.