Fuel efficiency

Prepared by the King County Department of Transportation Fleet Administration Division

Idling gets you nowhere…

An idling vehicles gets the worst gas mileage possible: 0 miles per gallon.

If 145 million passenger vehicles idle for 5 minutes a day, they consume about 4 million gallons of gasoline. [Source: www.hcdoes.org—external link]

At least 31 states and the District of Columbia have anti-idling regulations at the state, county, or local level. The limits placed on idling time range from 15 minutes—in Maricopa County, Ariz.; Owatonna, Minn.; Clark and Washoe counties in Nevada and the State of Nevada itself; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Atlanta, Ga.—to 0 minutes in Minneapolis, Minn. in residential areas between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

You’re in control

Fifty-five percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the Pacific Northwest come from transportation.

Your driving habits can affect the amount of fuel you use. You control:

• Engine running time
• Vehicle speed
• Vehicle performance

A poorly maintained vehicle will waste fuel no matter how well you drive it.

A truck driven using poor driving habits can consume up to 35 percent more fuel than a truck driven using fuel-efficient driving techniques. [Source: What Smart Drivers Should Know, Office of Energy Efficiency, Canada, 1998]

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Some facts about idling

• Idling for more than 10 seconds uses more fuel than restarting the engine [Source: Fast Facts About Vehicle Idling, Greater Sudbury, Canada]
• Idling for 2 minutes uses the same amount of fuel it takes to travel 1 mile
• Idling 10 minutes per day uses over 27 gallons of fuel per year [Source: Vermont Agency of Natural Resources