Ottawa outlaws remote car starters
Only In Canada, Eh
Via The Daily Bell
With the New Year kicking in, the City of Ottawa reminded the plebs that new idling times for all automobiles on private or public land were now in effect:
ICYMI – #OttCity has new idling times for vehicles on public and private property to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality.
— City of Ottawa (@ottawacity) January 2, 2025
Learn more about these updates to the Idling Control By-law: https://t.co/L1FRgs2twx pic.twitter.com/oLu02UuSl2
Ottawa is the Canadian capital, where average temperatures range from -9C (15F) in December, -14C (6F) in January and Febuary, to -7C (19F) in March. The new time limits on pre-heating your car will allow one minute of idle time per hour for unoccupied vehicles.
That means using the remote starter to melt off the ice and warm the car up before piling into it for the morning commute is now verboten. It’ll also mean you’ll have to get out there in the -14C weather with your ice-scraper because there’s no way a minute of idle time is enough to defrost or de-ice your windshield.
Why?
In their own words:
“we are lowering greenhouse gas emissions and improving Ottawa’s air quality”
The entire nation of Canada is responsible for about 1.6% of Co2 emissions. You could eliminate the entire energy footprint of every Canadian (like maybe, forcing every last one of them to freeze to death in the winter) and it wouldn’t even move the needle in terms of reducing global emissions.
Via FactsOnClimate
Meanwhile China is still building and powering up about two new coal fired power plants every week:
Via Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA)
One can’t help but wonder how much Ottawa’s city council thinks how much net CO2 emissions they will cut by forcing citizens to cold start their cars.
There’s another problem…
So when your DPF system on your diesel truck forces you to do a parked regen cycle, are you going to get a ticket from bylaw enforcement because you are stationary with the engine running for a half an hour?
— Dave (@BUTDIDUVOTE) January 4, 2025
He’s referring to Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) systems that Diesel trucks use to… (wait for it) reduce emissions. Those require periodic regeneration cycles where the engine must run to burn off accumulated soot, which can take up to 30 minutes.
Not to mention the additional wear and tear on your engine that cold starts can cause.
Judging by how badly the city’s tweet got ratioed, there will be pushback on this new law – so the city is recommending people call 311 to rat out their neighbours and friends who may be ignoring the new bylaw.
I’ve often joked that the list of what will be outlawed under communism will include things like heated bathroom floors. Judging from the action in Canada’s capital, it won’t be a joke much longer.
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