This paper has had several articles about tailpipe emissions lately, with suggestions such as widening turn lanes so you don’t sit idling while waiting to turn.

Why can’t our elected officials (federal, state and local), who dictate how we live our lives (buy electric vehicles, use heat pumps in our homes, don’t use gas-powered mowers and leaf blowers, etc.), pass some simple laws about idling cars and enforce them?

In my area there are neighbors, who in the winter remote start one or two cars and trucks and let them idle for 20 minutes to warm, and do the same in the summer to cool. The town hall in Cumberland has “No idling” signs posted outside but there is no enforcement. Almost every student at the local school with a license drives to school alone. It would use less fuel to transport them by school bus, which we pay for in taxes.

Instead of telling us what we need to buy in the future, do some simple things to help solve some of the problems we have now.

Roger Fajans
Cumberland Center