[alanmeaslesisace]

Do you find idling vehicles annoying?
people parked up for long periods of time polluting the environment with their engines running, I believe it is illegal to do that!

[Nick]

Context is key for me @alanmeaslesisace . But in general yes - especially around schools - my son's primary school have signs to discourage people from doing it.

In terms of the law, there is a provision in the Highway Code for this:

Rule 123


The driver and the environment.
You MUST NOT leave a parked vehicle unattended with the engine running or leave a vehicle engine running unnecessarily while that vehicle is stationary on a public road. Generally, if the vehicle is stationary and is likely to remain so for more than a couple of minutes, you should apply the parking brake and switch off the engine to reduce emissions and noise pollution. However it is permissible to leave the engine running if the vehicle is stationary in traffic or for diagnosing faults.
Law CUR regs 98 & 107

Source: gov.uk

[Rolebama]

I sometimes take my wife shopping, and I tend to wait in the car for her. (Supermarket car park.) I see a lot of men in cars with engines running for sometimes over an hour. In cold weather I sort of understand, but it costs me nothing to dress to sit and wait. (I take a book to read.) But I don't understand why they still do it in clement weather. Maybe they are listening to their radio/cd and are worried about running battery flat!?

[olduser]

They must be very rich, is what I think when I see them sitting with the engine running.

Also the ones at night, who are dropping someone off maybe, and they stop facing the wrong way with the head lights on.
Another version of the same thing, at night, get in the car, turn headlights on, start up, and wait, again facing wrong way.

[TC1474]

Originally Posted by Nick

Context is key for me @alanmeaslesisace . But in general yes - especially around schools - my son's primary school have signs to discourage people from doing it.

In terms of the law, there is a provision in the Highway Code for this:

Rule 123


The driver and the environment.
You MUST NOT leave a parked vehicle unattended with the engine running or leave a vehicle engine running unnecessarily while that vehicle is stationary on a public road. Generally, if the vehicle is stationary and is likely to remain so for more than a couple of minutes, you should apply the parking brake and switch off the engine to reduce emissions and noise pollution. However it is permissible to leave the engine running if the vehicle is stationary in traffic or for diagnosing faults.
Law CUR regs 98 & 107

Source: gov.uk

The short name for the offence you refer to is called "Quitting" and is by and large the first traffic offence that the majority of new young coppers report for as it is such an easy offence, however the Highway Code is wrong in saying or suggesting that it is illegal to keep your engine running whilst stationary for a couple of minutes or more. If the driver is behind the wheel, no offence is committed, the offence (as you mentioned) only applies to leaving a vehicle parked and unattended with the engine running.

Penalty is usually a standard £200 and 3 points.

Following on from that, a lot of people commit that offence in winter whilst defrosting. They start up their engines and then go inside whilst it is defrosting.

The insurers are also getting wise, and as a result of a number of vehicles being stolen during tis time, they have refused to pay out for the theft as the owner contributed directly to the theft of their vehicle.

This has left some drivers seriously out of pocket through their own stupidity.

But as you can see, actions can have consequences.

[NMNeil]

I don't know if it's true in the UK (TC1474 would know) but here every time we had a cold snap we would get plenty of calls of cars being stolen from driveways while they were left unattended and idling to get them warm.
The aftermath was worse as the owner would be on the phone at least twice a day asking "Have you found my car yet?"
When one of the owners asked me "Why aren't you out looking for it?"
I replied "It's funny how many times a driver has asked me if I don't have anything better to do while I'm writing them a ticket. So no, I'm not actively looking for you car that you left running with the keys in the ignition because I have better things to do."
That got me 1 week on school patrol 😉

[TC1474]

Originally Posted by NMNeil

I don't know if it's true in the UK (TC1474 would know) but here every time we had a cold snap we would get plenty of calls of cars being stolen from driveways while they were left unattended and idling to get them warm.
The aftermath was worse as the owner would be on the phone at least twice a day asking "Have you found my car yet?"
When one of the owners asked me "Why aren't you out looking for it?"
I replied "It's funny how many times a driver has asked me if I don't have anything better to do while I'm writing them a ticket. So no, I'm not actively looking for you car that you left running with the keys in the ignition because I have better things to do."
That got me 1 week on school patrol 😉

Back in the day, just about every driver we stopped used to make the comment such as "Have you not got anything better to do" or "Why are you not catching criminals?"

It always used to catch them off guard when we explained that most criminals were caught and many offences were detected by stopping people like them. 😊

Back to your original point though, when someone reported their car stolen and they were clearly contributory to the theft, when they asked why we were not out in force looking for their motor, the stock reply (bearing in mind that we were traffic and so detached from divisional policing and so we answered to nobody in local policing) was along the lines of "There are people who genuinely need our help, they have our priority not some idiot who thinks its OK to hand the car keys to the crooks with your blessing.

That tended to shut them up as well