Fix the border lineups, stop excessive idling! 25th September, 07

It’s public knowledge that the Canadian Dollar has recently hit parity with the US Dollar. What does this mean? Well, that’s a loaded question but I can tell you one thing is for sure, the border lineups will only get worse. I can tell you first hand that you should expect at least an hour or two wait at the Peace Arch, perhaps more.

Now, the lineups are not new but have existed even before the loonie experienced its recent surge.

Ok, so what’s the problem with the lineups

Besides the obvious — inconveniencing the public — we’ve got hundreds upon thousands of automobiles sitting there, idling in lineups. Sitting there for hours and hours, burning (wasting) copious amounts of fuel. If this doesn’t bother you, then that just shows what this society has gotten to with our acceptable waste. Newsflash! a single car wastes about just over one-tenth of a litre for 5 minutes of idling. Doesn’t sound like much, but if you count how many other vehicles are in that line-up with you (~100 others?) and the fact you’re probably there for at least 40-60 minutes each we’re now talking a minimum of $100 bucks per hour. I wish I made $100 an hour!! And so do you! So let’s get that back down to something we can all afford

The government is well aware of the impact of our idling vehicles has on the government.

If every driver of a light duty vehicle avoided idling by five minutes a day, collectively, we would save 1.8 million litres per day of fuel, almost 4500 tonnes of GHG emissions, and $1.7 million in fuel costs everyday (assuming fuel costs are $0.95/L).
Idling Wastes Fuel and Money

Why don’t they do something about this? Can they do something about this? Of course they can!

Specifically, at the Peach Arch; they could use the natural landscape to create (and increase) the gradual downward slope leading up to customs. This would allow users to shut down their engines and just roll un-powered down the hill toward customs (this is what Malin and I did last time we were in the border lineup). Currently one can do this at the Peach Arch in both directions but unfortunately the slope is only steep enough for a short distance and otherwise you need to keep your car running.

Now, this is a perfect situation for those of you driving Hybrid’s as you can sit there with no engine running, and use electric power to make your way trough the lineup. If only we were all so lucky.

So what is a realistic solution? A horizontal vehicle escalator (ones you see in large airports), landscaping for downhill slopes, mandatory hybrid automobiles, or something else. I know that as fuel prices continue to climb, and traffic continues to worse, there will be a need for a real solution to all this excessive idling!

Want more to read on this? Check out some of the research that has been done.

filed under Environment, Lifestyle, Society, Technology. Comments Off

5 Most Recent Posts