Officials try to reduce idling

CLEVELAND (AP) — Officials across Northeast Ohio are synchronizing traffic lights and updating truck stops in an attempt to wipe out vehicle idling, a habit that scientists say spews greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

In Cuyahoga County — named the fourth-worst U.S. county for carbon dioxide emissions in a recent Purdue University study — eliminating the practice would cut about 196,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from passenger cars and trucks, according to calculations based on Environmental Protection Agency estimates and Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles statistics.

“Any amounts you can cut are important,” said Michael Short, program director of the Cleveland-based Clean Air Conservancy. “That’s just a complete waste. It’s energy generation you’re not even using.”

The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency — whose slogan is “Be Idle-Free! Turn off the key” — coordinates stoplight projects to streamline traffic and limit waiting.

Stoplight updates cost less than $3,000 per intersection, according to the National Transportation Operations Coalition. The group says proper signal timing could reduce gasoline use by 10 percent.

NOACA plans to synchronize lights on two major streets in Lakewood, and updates are planned for the Cleveland suburbs of Eastlake, Avon and Brunswick. Federal grants aimed at reducing congestion and improving air quality will fund the projects.

“Any reduction is good,” said NOACA traffic engineer Mahmoud Al-Lozi. “We know the traffic is going to be there. But having them idle less and go at a steady speed between intersections will help them reduce emissions.”

Trucks nationwide use more than 1 billion gallons of diesel to idle overnight and run televisions, heaters and air conditioning, said Mitch Greenberg, manager of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Smartway partnership with freight companies.

A growing number of truck stops, including Travel Centers of America in Seville and Youngstown, are providing electrification sites to power up big rigs.

“It’s crazy to have a truck idle and waste fuel,” said David Bartosi, spokesman for the Ohio Trucking Association. “It’s a question of behavior modification, trying to get drivers to realize they should shut it down.”

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority has limited its 620 buses to three minutes of idling, and city-owned vehicles are only permitted to idle in emergency situations, with rare exceptions.

“We did it because of the environment and rising fuel costs,” said Cleveland’s sustainability program manager, Andrew Watterson, who launched the policy in 2006.

The Ohio Department of Education outlaws diesel engine idling for more than five minutes in front of schools. The Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights recently told police officers they can only idle their cars if a police dog is inside.

The reduction probably won’t diminish Cuyahoga County’s high ranking on the emissions list, which is based primarily on industrial polluters, said David Greene, an expert at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for Transportation Analysis in Tennessee.

But eradicating idling could reduce total greenhouse gas emissions by approximately one to two percent, Greene said.