Legality
Environmental impact
Final word
Legality
Idling is when your car sits parked with the engine running. Some people may do this out of forgetfulness but in Alaska, many do it because it will allow them to get the interior cabin of the car warm or to keep it warm. So, the question is, how legal is idling in Alaska?
Well, in Alaska idling is legal if you are in your car in the driver’s seat or if you have an automatic starter. The maximum time that you are allowed to idle in either circumstance is twenty minutes. There are other exemptions for things like emergency vehicles but for regular citizens, being in the car in the driver’s seat or using an automatic starter (with no key needed in the ignition) are the only two ways to idle legally. If you get a ticket for excessive idling, expect it to cost over a hundred dollars.
Environmental impact
Unfortunately, just because you might be able to avoid legal consequence if you are idling your car properly, it does not mean that there are not other consequences. The biggest of which is likely the environmental implications that idling your car has. Idling your vehicle’s engine can and does cause unnecessary greenhouse gas and air quality emissions primarily in the form of carbon dioxide. These things directly contribute to smog as well as to global warming.
Not only does excessive idling have a serious environmental impact, but it will also hurt your wallet because idling is a great way to waste gas as well. Typically, when you idle you end up using a gallon of gas for every hour that you idle. So, if you idle your vehicle in Alaska for just fifteen minutes a day in Alaska, five days a week, you will be wasting over a gallon of gas a week. If you estimate a gallon of gas costing three dollars per gallon, this comes out to be almost two hundred dollars of wasted gas per year.
Final word
Allowing your car to idle has some serious costs for you financially, for the environment and possibly even legally for you. It is legal to let your car idle for up to twenty minutes in Alaska if you are in the driver’s seat or if you have an automatic starter that does not require the key in the ignition. However, you will be wasting a considerable amount of gas as well as causing significant pollution. Do your best to keep your vehicle idling to a minimum at all times.
