
February 15, 2019 · 0 Comments
By James Matthews
Orangeville’s anti-idling bylaw should include vehicles that have been started by remote control, says Ron Lehman, an 87-year-old resident and cancer survivor.
Mr. Lehman urged Council during its Feb. 11 public meeting to consider making necessary bylaw amendments to include cars idling in driveways after being started remotely.
He alleged that one of his neighbours remotely starts a vehicle parked about eight feet from his basement window.
“You can’t stop wind and air coming into your house. I don’t care how much you seal it,” he said.
Typically with such remote car starters, the vehicle will cut out after running 15 minutes. According to Mr. Lehman, the neighbour has been known to remotely re-start his vehicle repeatedly after each 15-minute spell.
“Sometime it goes for an hour,” he said. “That (exhaust) is getting into my home.
“How many more people are doing that in Orangeville?”
Mr. Lehman said there’s nothing in the current municipal bylaw against idling vehicles that governs the use of remote car starters.
“Somebody’s got to get ahold of this and change it,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, we’re all in the same pot here. We all breath the same air.”
Mayor Sandy Brown said the town has a unique opportunity to disseminate information to residents by way of Orangeville Hydro bills that go to every household. And, he said, maybe that would be a good avenue to inform people about remotely started idling cars.
“There’s opportunities there,” the mayor said. “We’ll try and give some more education on that front to our residents.”