richie349 wrote:The subject probably says it all really.
When at traffic lights and local knowledge tells you it's going to be a long wait, is it sensible to turn your engine off? I'm talking about a non stop-start vehicle.
I've started doing this I recently but am not sure whether it's beneficial or advisable.
Your thoughts?
I would say it's a bad idea to disable your car by turning off the ignition when stationary at lights. I think there are times when it's reasonable to do so, such as when at some level crossings or possibly in gridlocked traffic but lights are a hazard/ controlled junction. Without needlessly exploring either the array of differently controlled lights or the depths of the 'what if' Random Possibility Generator of Catastrophic Possible Eventualities... what if you had to move your car to allow, say, an emergency vehicle to squeeze past or a filtering motorcylist and couldn't because the car wouldn't start. Also some cars still overheat if not left running to allow the systems to cool everything down. Can't say it's ever happened to me, though I always thought it would in our ex Fiat Panda of many colours.
I also think savings for fuel efficiency can often be a bit of a white elephant when weighed against how much extra effort everything would have to go through if the number of on/offs in a car not fitted with Stop/Start gizmology escalated to dozens of times every day. As cars become more efficient, fuel prices rise and if this is more about pollution, take a trip to any town or city in eg.India to see what little effect our effort have when faced with the pollution Indian traffic generates.
PS: As a slight personal aside, I remember when many of the buildings around Whitehall were thoroughly stained black with decades of industrial and traffic pollution and just how long it took to have it all cleaned, so that wasn't a dig at India.
A wise man once told me that "it depends". I sometimes agree.