Vehicle Idling Policy
Idling vehicles pollute the air and present several health and environmental hazards. With thousands of residents on campus, it is central to the mission of the university to keep our campus population safe and healthy. Pollution from idling vehicles poses a direct risk to our population.
No vehicle on campus shall sit idling for longer than five minutes, except in the case of snow removal, emergency operations or the exemptions indicated below. This applies to faculty, staff, student, contractor, and University-owned vehicles, and to shuttles as well. This is an extension of the policy the university first implemented in 2008 for all Facilities Services vehicles on campus.
This is also an extension of state law. Massachusetts General Law (MGL Chapter 90, Section 16A) and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection's idling reduction regulation (310 CMR 7.11(1)(b)) prohibit unnecessary vehicle idling by mandating that the engine must be shut down if the vehicle will be stopped for more than five minutes.
Exemptions include:
- The vehicle is being serviced, and the idling is required to repair the vehicle.
- The vehicle is making deliveries and needs to keep its engine running (to power refrigerators, for example).
- The vehicle’s accessory equipment, such as a forklift's or a truck’s rear dump bed, or a wheelchair lift in a bus or van, needs to be powered, to provide additional protections for children, MGL Chapter 90, Section 16B further restricts unnecessary idling in school zones.
Impacts of Vehicle Idling
Gasoline and diesel vehicle tailpipes produce carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds and oxides of nitrogen. Carbon monoxide causes respiratory distress and in high concentrations can be lethal. Carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming, and VOCs and NOx form ozone and ground-level smog and impair lung function. In addition, diesel exhaust contains fine particulate matter, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has designated as a likely carcinogen. The elderly, chronically ill and children are all particularly vulnerable to these health effects, because their lung function is respectively decreased, impaired or still in development.