Ottawa’s new anti-idling rules begin on New Year’s Day [Video]

Ottawa motorists will need to watch the clock when idling their vehicles, as the city implements new rules under the anti-idling bylaw to crack down on unnecessary idling.

As of Jan. 1, the maximum idling time for occupied vehicles is three minutes per hour when the temperature is between 0 C and 27 C, and 10 minutes when the temperature is colder than 0 C or warmer than 27 C.

The maximum idling time for an unoccupied vehicle is now one minute per hour, regardless of the temperature.

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Council approved changes to the idling bylaw in October.

“By reducing unnecessary vehicle idling, we are lowering greenhouse gas emissions and improving Ottawa’s air quality,” the City of Ottawa said in a statement on its website. “If every Ottawa driver reduced daily idling in their vehicles by two minutes, carbon dioxide emissions would decrease by about …