JTX99, you're right. I got this from consumerenergycenter.org: "For every 10 mins of idling, a car uses as much fuel as it takes to go a mile." So, if you get 20 mpg, it would take 200 mins to use a gallon of gas. In 30 mins, you'd use as much gas as it would take to go 3 miles, or about 15% of a gallon. So, what's 15% of 1.8 billion? 270 million. That's still too much just so you can keep your A/C running because you're too much of a panty waist to endure a little extra warmth for half an hour. I know we can't get everyone to do their part but it's attitudes like yours that make us such a wasteful society. Look at how the Japanese worked together after the earthquake and tsunami. They helped each other. They separated their trash and recylables, all in an effort to minimize the inevitable waste problem that was going to occur because nobody was going to come pick up their trash. Conversely, after Katrina, people stuck in the Superdome just complained that the trash cans were overflowing in the bathrooms and the place was filthy. Nobody was working to keep their situation as sanitary as possible. No, they expected someone else to do it. It's that mentality that will doom us all. Why is it so hard to work together? And why does it make more sense to get to the school later? I'm the one shutting off my vehicle. I'm not wasting gas idling for 30 mins. What difference does it make when I get there?

ENVIRONMENTAL WACKOS!

rhancox:---- You do whatever you want. However there's no way your vehicle burns a gallon of gas in an hour. If it does, you need a different car. Do you shut off your engine when you wait in traffic, or stop lights? No. But this would save the world according to you, ONLY IF everyone did it. This is impractical. The utopia you are looking for will never happen. Concentrate on archiving things that are possible in life and you will have much less stress to deal with. It would make more sense to me, in your case if you would simply not show up to your school so early, so you dont need to idle, Use public transporation, or home school. Think about all the gas EVERYONE would save if everyone home schooled. You live your life how you want to and the rest of us will do the same.

FINALLY! I'm one of those that waits for an extended period of time for my daughter. I've always shut off my engine to wait, no matter how hot it is. Aside from emissions, why waste the gas? It wouldn't surprise me to learn that idling for 30 minutes easily wastes a gallon of gas. Would you throw away $3? Then why waste a gallon of gas. Do that for a whole school year and you've wasted 180 gallons. That's 9 tanks of gas. That's $540! Multiply that by the number of people who keep their engine running, let's say 10 per school, then by the number of schools in the city, let's say there's 100 (though I'm sure there's more). That's 1000 gallons of gas wasted a day. That's 180,000 gallons of gas wasted per school year just in this city alone. There are tens of thousands of schools throughout the country. Even if there were just 10,000 schools in the whole country, that's 10 million gallons of gas wasted each day. That's 1.8 billion gallons wasted each school year! Sure, the environment is a concern, but it's not the only thing to think about. And we haven't even considered the cars left idling in drive-thru banks and fast food restaurants.

Whatever. None of these limo liberals around here will sweat in July.