Every day, air pollution kills five New Yorkers and sends eight others to the emergency room, wheezing, coughing, and short of breath. It also causes cardiovascular disease, cancer, and dementia. Although everyone breathes polluted air, children, elderly, and historically disadvantaged communities are hurt the most.
There are many causes of air pollution, but diesel trucks and buses are leading contributors. Medium- and heavy-duty trucks and buses comprise just 6% of vehicles, yet produce more than half of all particulate pollution. Maddeningly, illegal engine idling remains rampant, including near schools and parks.
Thankfully, each of us can help stop illegal idling. Citizens reported an astounding — and frightening — 180,000 instances of illegal idling last year. Their reports yield results. Last month, Mayor Mamdani announced the collection of $9 million in idling fines from Amazon, almost all based on videos sent by ordinary New Yorkers.
As a public health professor, however, I am concerned that Intro 561-A, a bill before the City Council, threatens to destroy this successful enforcement mechanism, imperiling all New Yorkers.
The city’s anti-idling law dates to 1971. But for decades, city agencies rarely enforced it, issuing just one or two idling citations per day citywide.
That changed in 2018, when the Council passed Helen Rosenthal’s bill encouraging New Yorkers to report idling violations by requiring the city to publicize the process and pay them 25% of any collected fines for their efforts.
Including everyday New Yorkers in enforcement just plain works. In Upper Manhattan, where I live, fewer commercial vehicles are idling. Behaviors have changed. Some companies have converted to electric vehicles. My family and I breathe a little easier.
Intro 561-A, however, would reverse those gains. Under this bill, all diesel truck and bus operators could avoid idling fines by claiming they were running a “regeneration” cycle, which produces highly noxious pollution.
Regeneration is not an idling excuse now, but if 561-A passes, it would be impossible for citizens or the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to prove a vehicle was not engaged in regeneration, providing an easy out from all diesel idling tickets. Perversely, this exemption may encourage companies to switch to highly-polluting diesel engines to avoid idling fines.
561-A would also prohibit DEP from acting on citizen complaints after more than 60 days. Either the citizen would be required to immediately self-prosecute alleged infractions — a lengthy, complicated process few people are trained and have time to do — or complaints would be tossed and pollution go unpunished.
Giving polluters timely notice of an alleged violation is fundamentally good policy, but that shouldn’t come at the expense of enforcing our laws. If 561-A passes, more than 150,000 pending idling complaints could be thrown out. That would be a huge win for polluters, worth $60-$200 million, and they would not be held accountable for the damage already inflicted on us.
Rather than setting unrealistic deadlines, the Council should give the DEP the resources it needs to act quickly on those complaints.
Finally, Intro 561-A would decrease citizen participation. Instead, the Council should improve access to the program by ensuring non-English language speakers can participate and reducing other barriers.
Intro 561-A seems like a legislative gift to diesel truck and bus operators, making it easier for them to idle endlessly. More air pollution will mean more preventable health issues and premature deaths. The Council must stop Intro. 561-A.
Hartmann is a member of the board of directors of Sure We Can and an associate professor of public health at SUNY Old Westbury.