102
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 41 points 2 weeks ago

Under the Citizens Air Complaint Program, they can record idling trucks or buses, report them and keep 25% of any fines, which typically range from $350 to $600.

This seems pretty common sense.

[-] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 2 weeks ago

I mean, bare minimum that’s over $80 per report. Even if you only get one per hour, that’s still fantastic money by most metrics. That’s like $14k per month, or ~$170k per year. And that’s just the bare minimum fine.

[-] cenzorrll@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 weeks ago

Per fine, not report. So there's the "did they actually get fined" portion of it. But still, That's a nice bonus if only one report goes through a week, for maybe an extra hour of time spent if you regularly bike commute, walk, etc.

[-] doctor_zoidberg@mastodon.social 4 points 2 weeks ago

@some_guy @Davriellelouna Yup, I wish we had it here. People leave their cars idling (with music blasting) to go into a shop for a bag of chips or something.

[-] Tim_Bisley@piefed.social 24 points 2 weeks ago

I wish there was something like this for reporting people parked in bike lanes.

[-] avg@lemmy.zip 14 points 2 weeks ago

The cops won't ticket themselves.

[-] fishpen0@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

That’s why this system is great though. Citizens report violations directly to the city and bypass the cops who never enforce these kinds of rules or violate them themselves. The city could fine the cops. Whether or not that happens is a different issue

[-] janus2@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 weeks ago

best i can do is roll of removal-resistant "I PARK LIKE A FUCKING ASSHOLE" stickers

[-] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Best i can do is a trip to ireland where i go to republican bars and talk to every old dude i see, especialky if he's missing a hand. #lifegoals

Fuck cars!

[-] Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 2 weeks ago
[-] jlow@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 weeks ago

The quota of complaints that was actually followed through / taken action on was similar to stuff actually recycled from collected recycling, both rates are below well 10% (in Germany).

[-] Plaidboy@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 weeks ago

Wish we got a more complete understanding of the truckers' side in this article - why is it so hard to turn off your engine instead of idling?

The guy quoted in the article says that some trucks need to operate their lift gates 15 or 20 times in a day. First of all, turn on your engine to operate the gate and then turn it off when you're done... Secondly, if it is impacting business too much to take that extra time to turn the engine on and off, invest in an auxiliary power source to operate the lift gate.

Maybe I'm missing something?

[-] MintyFresh@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Former trucker. If it's hot or cold AF it sucks not having a or heat. If it's a hot day, it's way hotter on blacktop surrounded by hot engines.

It can be a pain to turn it on and off a bunch of times per day, I know it sounds minor, but when you're trying to keep track of a bunch of things, making sure the right cargo comes off or on in the right order in the right way, hitting multiple docks or stops in quick succession. Trying to claim the space you need and trip plan (a lot of people don't realize how difficult it can be to get a truck through a city, especially East Coast cities).

Then you get somewhere and hop out of your truck to check in, thinking it will take 30 seconds. Talk to whomever you may need to, clear obstacles and eyeball the space you need to get your trailer into. You'll run into clueless, apathetic and just all around useless fucks at every corner. The sort of people that make glaciers seem on point. 30 seconds can turn into 30 minutes real quick.

It's a tough gig, and having an army of mercenary profit driven people out there looking to make a buck off the guy delivering literally everything you need to survive that's not air (and sometimes even that too) is kinda bullshit.

Edit: I'm not endorsing excessive idling, just trying to give some perspective on why a driver may fail to turn it off.

And also that a policy that pays anyone to report it is suspect at best. Where are we drawing the line on that? Jaywalking? What about immigration? Who's to say I can't start a company that surveils and informs for profit? It's a slippery damn slope with nothing nice at the bottom. Enforcement should be done with paid public servants, full stop.

[-] Mniot@programming.dev 23 points 2 weeks ago

There's a lot of externalizing of costs going on. The trucks are idling because the drivers are operating at the slimmest possible margin under the assumption that idling doesn't cost anything.

What we actually would want to get to is that idling does have a cost (environmental, health, pleasantness of the area, etc). And that cost ought to be passed up the chain so that the various goods being shipped are more expensive.

But without a more centrally-managed economy, the implementation is to put all the pressure on the truck drivers and leave them responsible for passing that pressure to the next step up the chain. It doesn't work out very well in practice because the drivers need to make a bunch of capital expenses for something like adding a cab AC and adding a batter-powered lift, but they've been operating at low margins so they're not in a position to do it.

[-] MintyFresh@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

Local deliveries should be happening in electric vehicles. And 90% of long range trucks should have been a train. Go back in time a few decades and get the godless MBA having fucks out of the railroad industry.

Boom! Y'all should elect me king of everything, just solving problems left and right!

[-] grue@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

Local deliveries should be happening in electric vehicles.

Including cargo bikes, not only electric box trucks.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[-] Woht24@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

The first 3 paragraphs are absolute garbage.

Your last one I get, but still, it's a job, delivering in a large metropolitan area sucks. Turning your engine off ain't that hard. Yes I've worked as a driver.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

There are also older and jankier trucks still around which need the engine running for things like the lights and/or the hydraulic loading gate in the back to operate. Both these things are non-negotiable safety needs when loading or unloading a truck.

[-] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah that sucks, but that truck should be a train on a rail spur, and if we can punish anyone involved in making it not that, i am in favor.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

an army of mercenary profit driven people out there looking to make a buck off the guy

that's one interpretation. another could be "a group of people who care enough about the air quality of their neighborhood that they finally stand up for themselves".

[-] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 2 points 2 weeks ago

To add to this as a Diesel mechanic,

Diesel engines are designed to operate continuously for the most part, the most wear and tear on the engines happen during start up and shut down.

They take large batteries and more effort to start so repeatedly doing that over and over in short intervals will lead to flat batteries and burnt out starter motors

Diesel engines run most efficiently I.e less pollution and better fuel economy when warm, cold engines cause more soot etc.

The engines wear poorly and develope carbon deposits from stop start operations too increasing fuel consumption and NOX emissions.

Lastly but certainly not the end of it is most Diesel trucks have what's known as a turbo timer, this keeps the engine running 2 minutes or more depending on settings after the ignition is turned off.

This allows oil flow around the turbo and prevents unnecessary heat damage to components.

Certainly if i applied some thought to this i could come up with more reasons and others could argue against but that's what I've got to say on the matter

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[-] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 weeks ago

My grandpa drove a semi truck;

The A/C was part of it, some truck stops even had a thing called “IdleAir” that was like a window unit so you didn’t have to leave your engine running. For semis nobody wants to sleep in a sunbaked box with no air.

But according to him, for the really big engines, turning it off and on causes more wear and tear than leaving it running. So back in the day when diesel was still very cheap compared to gas they all got in the habit of leaving it on all the time.

Even the cops leave their cars on all the time where I am from.

load more comments (6 replies)
[-] zurohki@aussie.zone 3 points 2 weeks ago

If you're loading and unloading 20 times a day, you're doing local delivery and should probably be in an electric truck in the first place.

[-] OldGrayDog@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 2 weeks ago

Sorry, but those don't exist in any appreciable amount in the US, unfortunately.

load more comments (9 replies)
[-] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 14 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

There’s a street I cross in the morning that becomes a clearway during commute hours. I take a grim satisfaction in watching the tow trucks take away yank tanks, because of course their humans believe the rules apply to everyone but them.

[-] burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 weeks ago

clearway

yank tanks

What in the upside down hellscape am I reading here?

[-] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago
[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 5 points 2 weeks ago

(uɐᴉlɐɹʇsn∀) ɥsᴉlƃuƎ

[-] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 weeks ago

Can we get that for reporting cars parked in bus and tramway lanes?

[-] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 2 points 2 weeks ago

And bike lanes.

[-] suswrkr@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 weeks ago

not all heroes wear capes

[-] Cornpop@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

You can pull 100k reporting 2-4 cars every day 365 days a year.

[-] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

$71k if you take weekends off

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] jerkface@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 weeks ago

If true, he just fucked himself.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago

Every city should do this.

[-] als@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Idling is illegal here often but I see vehicles doing it all the time. Would love if a scheme like this existed in the UK

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
102 points (99.0% liked)

Fuck Cars

12550 readers
277 users here now

A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

Rules

1. Be CivilYou may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.

2. No hate speechDon't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.

3. Don't harass peopleDon't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.

4. Stay on topicThis community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.

5. No repostsDo not repost content that has already been posted in this community.

Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.

Posting Guidelines

In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:

Recommended communities:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS