Shortly after moving into NYC I started wondering why people sat around idling their vehicles.  Maybe it is because I grew up in suburban-rural areas that I place such a priority on breathing clean air.  Or maybe it’s just that I don’t like having to breathe poison gas.

Fast forward a few decades and I met a lone crusader who was actually trying to stop this problem.  After meeting George Pakenham and watching Idle Threat I started my own survey of trying to figure out why people idle their vehicles.

Drivers know that they cannot breathe the fumes which are emitted from an internal combustion engine exhaust pipe. Yet people sit around their vehicles and run their engines when they aren’t driving.  

Here are some images I have taken with comments (when appropriate).  I no longer ask people to shut their engines off as things can escalate very quickly.

Sometimes it is to create their own personal climate.  Other times it is to listen to music or charge their phone.  Other instances are a total mystery; unless it is simply to run their engines because someone else is paying for gasoline.

Then there are those who know they shouldn’t be running their engines. 

— Peter Terezakis, April, 2014