[Mpls] Council committee passes anti-idling ordinance

[Dyna]

>389.100. Prohibited acts. (a) The following acts are not allowed in the city
>and the
>causing thereof are prohibited:

	Our council members might want to take a look at the state 
and federal level laws regarding safe transport of refrigerated 
foods, rest time for drivers, and the Americans with Disabilities 
Act, etc. before they pass such poorly planned laws that would 
largely be preempted.

>(7) Idling of Buses, Trucks, Tractors, Truck-tractor, Trailers and
>Semitrailers,
>as those terms are defined in Minnesota Statute 168.011, while stopped,
>standing or parked in a residentially used area between the hours of 10:00
>p.m. and 6:00 a.m. except as provided for under permit in section 389.70,
>in compliance with traffic signals or signs, at the directions of a police
>officer or while buses are in the act of loading or unloading passengers.

	For a start, our Council Members might wish to note that it 
is a violation of state and federal laws as well as the laws of 
common sense to operate a commercial vehicle with windows so fogged 
up or frosted over as to impair visibility. Thusly the Council's anti 
idling ordinance is preempted and pretty much goes up in smoke for 
most of the winter as drivers must often idle engines to get them 
warm enough to clear windows. The Council Members also seem unaware 
that many elders and people with disabilities have difficulty 
physiologicly coping with extreme heat and cold. It is thusly 
neccessary and required by the Minnesota Human Rights Act and the ADA 
that Metro Mobility, Metro Transit, and other transit and paratransit 
providers idle vehicles so they are not so cold or hot as to threaten 
the health or life of passengers with disabilities. Our upstart 
council is reminded that even Metro Transit preempts them and thus 
another chunk of their anti idling ordinance goes up in smoke.

>(8) Operation of a mobile refrigeration unit while stopped, standing or
>parked
>outside of an insulated building in a residentially used area between the
>hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.

	One would have thought that such passionate devotes of 
Latte's and organic foods as our Council Members would have 
researched the consequences of their ordinating more fully. Mobile 
refrigeration units have enough power to keep foodstuffs cool, but 
not enough to cool foods from room temperature or even an empty 
trailer on a hot summer day. Suffice to say, if you put 40,000 pounds 
of 40 degree milk in a 20,000 pound trailer that's been sitting all 
day in 100 degree heat you'll end up with 60 degree milk, which can 
be much worse for your health than a bit of engine idling. I won't 
even get into the multi million dollar liability suits possible when 
a dairy or other food producer is forced by our Council Member's new 
anti idling ordinance to deliver spoilt food and a few thousand 
people get very sick from same. That's why there are a bunch of state 
and federal laws and regulations requiring the maintainance of steady 
cool temperatures from plant to store shelves. To keep those foods 
safely and continuosly cool requires running refrigeration units 
continuosly at times. Thusly any responsible carrier of refrigerated 
food will defy our Council's ordinance.

	Our Council Members not having included a severability clause 
in their ordinance their whole poorly researched mandate pretty much 
is toast. If they want a law worth the bother of enacting they need 
to go back to the drawing board and listen to the folks who know 
trucks, refrigerated food safety, disabled folks, etc..

	not holding my breath in Hawthorne,

		Dyna Sluyter