Okay, maybe we don't need to ban the drive-thru in Madison, but some environmental groups say we should probably think twice before letting our cars idle needlessly.
You probably won't want to turn your car's engine off at every red light..but turning your car off at places like the bank drive-thru is probably not a bad idea.
I was chatting with Butch, a Triple M listener who owns Lil America Builders in Middleton, and he says we could change the world if we would just stop idling our cars so much. He told me about the 10-second break-even rule. If you're idling longer than 10 seconds, both you and the engine are better off if the engine is turned off and re-started. "Think about it," Butch told me, "the reason hybrid cars are so efficient is they TURN OFF when they're stopped, instead of idling."
According to a cool website put together by the Hinkle Charitable Foundation, Americans waste 3.8 million dollars of gasoline each day by voluntarily idling their cars. (And that figure doesn't even account for $4 a gallon gas).
My first objection was that all that starting of the car is bad on the ignition...but apparently frequently restarting your engine does nigligble damage to the engine, and does not drain modern batteries very much either. Idling actually forces the engine to operate in a very inefficient and gasoline rich mode that can degrade the engine's performance and reduce mileage.
I guess the best solution to all this is to avoid drive thru's when you canand actually go into the restaurant, bank, or coffee place to order and pick up your stuff. But if the drive thru is the only way to go, turn the engine off if the wait is going to be longer than 10 seconds. It will feel weird at first..but it will wind up saving you money, and keep some carbon dioxide out of the air. And it may actually make service go faster. (It's similar to what my mom used to say..you can always make the food arrive in a restaurant by lighting a cigarette).
Get more info about the anti-idling movement here.
i try to make one trip a night by bike or by walking...it's better than none! my husband drives a stick and he shuts his car off ALL THE TIME...it greatly improves his gas mileage. and personally...i do think drive-thrus should be banished! maybe we wouldn't be the most obese nation on the planet then.
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