Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2010

Rodrigo Rodriguez

Seeing Yellow

Regarding “Idle Behavior” (The Last Word, May 21): Mr. Nabhan’s article is very good. I’m constantly irritated by thoughtless drivers who snooze, engage in “gadget masturbation,” etc. with their engines on. There’s a public housing project across the street from our building. For some reason the roadside is designated as a parking area, and it’s usually filled with salesmen, taxi drivers and delivery truck drivers who are taking a (no doubt unofficial) break. Heaters on in winter, air-con in summer.

Considering that Japan imports 100 percent of its oil, it is unconscionable that there are no fines or concrete steps to discourage idling—the more so because, should push come to shove over, say, Middle East oil, there won’t be any members of the Japanese military laying it on the line.

My hometown has a different policy: Vancouver enacted a bylaw in 2006 prohibiting parked vehicles from idling for more than three minutes.

I like the idea of the yellow cards. Someone once suggested that a banana in the tailpipe of an idling vehicle would soon get the driver’s attention, but I haven’t tried this… yet.—Allan Murphy

Well done for doing something helpful. Change like this happens locally and can grow globally. I suggest talking to local schools to educate young ’uns so they can penalize their moms and dads from an early age and get into the habit of seeing the benefits of their actions. Also, I don’t know if your campaign was partly conducted in Tokyo, but I can imagine results will differ from city to city!

Talk to schools, shoot videos and post them on YouTube, try to get on NHK, and speak to some local advertisers to share the costs of printing by providing them a line or two of ad space on your yellow cards.—gomisute*

They did some research on this a while ago in New York, where people tend to turn off their car engines during traffic jams. They found that if you’re going to be idling for less than 5 to 10 minutes (depending on the age and make of car) then it is more efficient to leave the car idling. When you turn the ignition switch, a fairly considerable amount of fuel needs to be injected to get the engine started and a lot of it isn’t used and is released as pollution.

To cut a long story short, if you’re just popping into the conbini to grab an onigiri (3 minutes max) then it’s better for the environment (and your fuel consumption) to leave the engine idling. Do some research before criticizing.—Frungy**

We Stand Corrected

Regarding “Cutting-Edge Japan” (The Small Print, May 21): Lake District tourism managers have not imposed a £5 levy on Japanese tourists. “Tourists from Japan are being encouraged to donate £5” (BBC News). Japanese tourists have not been singled out to pay such a fee. “The voluntary scheme has existed for several years, but is only now being rolled out to the Japanese market” (BBC News). Please be careful not to twist stories so much that they cease to be true.—hansolosby*

* taken from the Metropolis online comment threads
** taken from the Japan Today online comment threads

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