Edmonton eyes scaled-back engine idling bylaw

After a public backlash against a city-wide anti-idling bylaw, Edmonton city bureaucrats have been asked to look into a more limited plan  that would restrict engine idling to specific zones near schools and hospitals.

Early last year Edmonton considered a comprehensive bylaw that would hit motorists with fines of $250 for allowing vehicles to idle for more than three minutes in temperatures of -10C or colder. But that proposal met with a public outcry.

Coun. Don Iveson said targeted idle-free zones in areas near hospitals or schools — is a good compromise.

"If you pressed people and they said, 'I really don't think there should be an idling bylaw' and you say, 'What about around a school or something,' people would say, yeah, 'I could get behind that,'" said Iveson. "People may not see a city-wide bylaw as resonable. I think people would see this as reasonable."

But Coun. Tony Caterina didn't like the previous proposal and doesn't like this one either.

"There's so many implications here we haven't thought about — I'm not sure why we are going down this road again."

According to the federal department of Natural Resources, many muncipalities across Canada have adopted idle-free bylaws for both public health reasons and to help reduce vehicle emissions. Most of the existing by-laws have between 10 and 12 exemptions that allow vehicles to idle beyond the prescribed 3- or 5-minute limits. But the effect of having a large number of exemptions is to create a patchwork law that is unevenly applied.

City staff have been asked into how zoned idle-free zones could work and to report back to council.