You Can't Change People With Rules

The other day, a co-worker brought up the fact that the city is trying to pass a bylaw that says it is illegal to idle a car for over three minutes when it is above -10 degrees. The general consensus was that this was a good idea. There is really no need to warm up a car for that long when it's not that cold outside. It has been generally accepted that all you need is one minute to warm up a car.

I, on the other hand, thought the rule was completely dumb. It's not that I disagree with the idea that wasting gas and destroying the environment should be discouraged, it's more the reality of what this bylaw will accomplish. My main gripe is enforcement. Will there be policemen posted at every driveway in the morning hours? Perhaps, stopwatches are made a mandatory piece of equipment along with a pistol and walkie talkie? It's ludicrous that anyone believes this can be put into action.

Secondly, I don't think you can change people with rules. Let's pretend that this bylaw is put into place and it is enforced, that doesn't make us any more environment friendly. We may be saving two minutes of exhaust from leaving our cars but we are still a wasteful society.

Laws do not change our culture and it's the culture that needs to be changed. For example, speeding laws are easily enforced, but there are still many individuals who travel above the speed limits. Also, there are many individuals who drive below the speed limit but still drive dangerously. Now look at the anti-smoking campaign, I've been raised to believe that smoking is harmful and is bad for you. I don't smoke and I believe most of my generation does not smoke. The campaign changed our societal image that smoking was glamorous into an association that smoking is linked to an early death without having to make smoking illegal!

Then someone asked me how do you change the culture? Obviously a generation of ads and propaganda were successful when it came to smoking but I don't have a surefire solution for saving the environment. I'm a one person with limited set of ideas. I don't devote nearly enough time to make a huge impact on our society. I do what I can do with my life to help and I'll leave the big projects to the likes of David Suzuki and others.