Do as you’re told, scofflaw!
If you’re lucky enough to live where snow falls and ice forms on your car parked outside, you need to be careful about warming it up in the mornings. Depending on where you live, the act of warming up your car before you get inside and drive off could be a violation of city code or even state law, with stiff penalties for violators. That might sound ridiculous because it absolutely is, so time to wake up and smell the government overreach.
Learn why your new car might come with a government kill switch here.
For a lot of drivers, the act of warming up the engine in their car is one of comfort, allowing the heater to warm the interior before they take off. Others use it as a way to help clear the ice and fog from the glass before they get going on the open road. But for others, it’s a way to avoid costly engine damage.
When it comes to older cars, warming up the engine is a must before you even think of putting it under load. After all, a cold carb won’t get the air/fuel mix correct, brittle valve springs can fail when too cold, and oil starvation is a very real concern once temperatures plummet, to name a few potential winter pitfalls. Some lawmakers and city bureaucrats don’t seem to understand this reality, so don’t necessarily expect leniency if you do drive an older car in snowy conditions.
The laws and ordinances regarding warming up cars can vary wildly from place to place. In some areas you can warm up your car if it’s in a private driveway. Some municipalities allow for idling a car without the owner being anywhere nearby if it’s done using remote start. In others you can warm it up if you’re actually inside the vehicle, or if you’re within eyesight of it. Others put a time limit on idling a car when not sitting at a traffic light, some providing as little as one minute to put it in gear and get moving. In other words, you need to check your local laws and ordinances if you’re concerned about getting a ticket for warming up your car on cold winter mornings.
Just because there’s a law or ordinance where you live doesn’t mean the police or anyone else is going to cite you for violating it. As pointed out by KSL News Radio in Utah a few years ago, only 8 people had been fined under local cities’ idle-free ordinances, which had been in effect for 6 years. In other words, if the police and city code enforcement officers where you live aren’t gung ho about enforcing the car idling ordinances/laws, and you don’t have a nosy neighbor who has it in for you, most likely you’re in the clear.
Source: KSL News Radio
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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
Steven Simes, I agree with you… to be fined for warming up your ENGINE is nothing more than a minority of tree hugging, climate change nazis forcing their stupid thinking on a sane civilization for nothing more than exerting control and raising money. Wear and tear on an engine happens when the engine is first started and driving it in cold Temps without it being properly warmed up will shorten the life of the engine. Oh… that’s why we are forcing car mfgs to stop producing gas engines and make all cars electric so we can all breath “garden of eden” fresh air. First off, the majority of air pollution does not come from cars or trucks, But jet airplanes! Have you not noticed all the smog that hangs around airports (you need to be 5 to 10 miles away to see this)
Next, think how well your gonna fair in your stupid electric car when your stuck on a multiple car accident in the evenibg and in the middle of a blizzard as has been happening all around the world, only to have your battery go dead! Ha… “GOOD LUCK” will be something you will not experience. You think your making the world a better place to live? Your only creating problems we do not have now! Besides, how environmentally friendly do you think it is to make all these batteries and then discard them at the dumps?
And kest you enviro wack jobs forget China ,Russia, India and at least a dozen other countries use coal and emit all kinds of noxious chemicals into the air without restrictions more than 60x more than the cleanest nation in the world (America) ever has. Bottom line here is MAN IS TOO PUNY AND INCAPABLE OF ALTERING THE WEATHER SHORT OF RELEASING CHEMICALS FROM JETS FIR THE VERY PUROPSE TO ALTER THE WEATHER KNOWN AD CHEM TRAILS purposely to the wnd that the global community can tax us to death only for the money, PERIOD! BEWARE OF THOSE GOVERNMENTS WHO SAY THEY ARE CONCERNED FOR THE HEALTH OF THE PUBLIC. HISTORY HAS PROVEN THEY ARE REALLY ONLY INTERESTED IN CONTROLLING THE MASSES!