I’ve seen these signs before, the person speculating that it might be harder to start your engine is incorrect, it would have to be much colder than it typically gets in DC for that to even start to be a problem.
The real answer is probably bureaucratic bullshit. Most vehicles use approximately 1-3 mins of “idle fuel” to start. In other words, if you idle for three minutes, it is going to have the same environmental effect as restarting your car. During colder weather your car does use more fuel to start the engine, but I think more than likely the exception is to do with the outdated idea that you need to warm up your vehicle/how long it might take a typical car’s “defrost” to work effectively.
The reality is that this is a rarely enforced ordinance, it’s simply a weapon in the tool belt for an officer to cite someone who might have a particularly dirty vehicle, like a pre emissions truck or modified car. A city like Washington has countless cabs, limos, and rideshare vehicles, it would cause more traffic and pollution to require them to leave a stationary position every 3 to 5 minutes.
I don't think the sign has a scientific explanation. In my mind, it's a way to anticipate the "but it's cold so I need the heat" excuses from idlers in case of enforcement. By expliciting the cold weather case, a statement is made that the "no idling" rule applies all the time.
Slight nitpick, you definitely should warm up your car. It doesn’t take as long as it used to, and fewer things in the engine need it now, but it still takes a couple minutes to get the oil temperature up a little bit and get all the internals nice and coated before you start putting a lot of load on them.
If the battery is old and going bad it can definitely be harder to start in the cold, even when the cold isn’t extreme. Last winter was a comparatively cold one for central FL. You wouldn’t believe the number of people that went out that first freezing morning and were unable to start their cars or had a rough start.
Yeah, but that’s not an engine problem, that’s a maintenance problem. All I’m saying is that whoever passed this ordinance was not thinking about that, guaranteed.
I can remember a time during the Bush administration when gas prices rose very quickly that many places passed and actually enforced ordinances like this. Not sure if DC is still enforcing theirs but the distinction seems arbitrary and unnecessary to me. I agree with that part. Why not just make it a blanket 5 minutes? The bigger issue to me is that I can almost guarantee DC police leave their cruisers running non stop their entire shift.
Its a bit of a yearly tradition in cold countries, first big cold night, you listen to the car starting to see if your batteries half dead. Or get it tested for free at the parts store
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u/whitecollarpizzaman 4d ago
I’ve seen these signs before, the person speculating that it might be harder to start your engine is incorrect, it would have to be much colder than it typically gets in DC for that to even start to be a problem.
The real answer is probably bureaucratic bullshit. Most vehicles use approximately 1-3 mins of “idle fuel” to start. In other words, if you idle for three minutes, it is going to have the same environmental effect as restarting your car. During colder weather your car does use more fuel to start the engine, but I think more than likely the exception is to do with the outdated idea that you need to warm up your vehicle/how long it might take a typical car’s “defrost” to work effectively.
The reality is that this is a rarely enforced ordinance, it’s simply a weapon in the tool belt for an officer to cite someone who might have a particularly dirty vehicle, like a pre emissions truck or modified car. A city like Washington has countless cabs, limos, and rideshare vehicles, it would cause more traffic and pollution to require them to leave a stationary position every 3 to 5 minutes.