[Closed] What would STW do (engine idling content))

Banana up the exhaust pipe?

Edit: That's not a euphemism.

Does she ever turn off her engine? Cos if she does, see if you can ram a potato or turnip up the exhaust.

Edit: That’s not a euphemism

it is now

Honestly, ask politely, if challenged explain why you think it’s important, then walk off and try not to let it bother you.

Repeat as often as you have the stomach for.

You are right, they are wrong, but you’re not likely to change their behaviour, sadly.

If it’s more important to you than that, start taking photos each day, document things and report them to the police once you have several examples. You may not, however receive an effective response. After all it took four months for them to tell me they could take no action after a selfish idiot physically pushed me out of the lane I was in with his moving car and I reported it.

You challenged a school run mum, oh my, you are lucky to be alive. There has been huge heated debates at a local primary that's down a tiny cul de sac near us - school rum mums insisting they must drive down the tiny road, blocking it, parking over the pavements, and not park 2 minutes walk away because they are busy.

Buy massive american pick up with enormous diesel engine. Tune the cr*p out of it. Follow her home, then do "rolling coal" right outside her house and see how she likes that!

sorted.....

Tell her that even Boris Johnson wouldn't shag her. That will give her pause for thought.

As an aside, can I ask what car she drives? Place your bets here!

Phone the Police confidentially and say that the person in car X is taking pictures of kids outside a school..........

Do you have a chopsaw and some offcuts you could play with next to where she parks? Maybe an SDS drill and a lump of concrete you just need to chisel into dust?

A diesel. Always a diesel. Clattering away like a canal boat

Honestly, ask politely, if challenged explain why you think it’s important, then walk off and try not to let it bother you.

Repeat as often as you have the stomach for.

Ah yes, the best advice is always to tell you to do exactly what you described doing in your post!

My advice would be to move. You seem to have an abundance of shitty people surrounding your house going by the threads you start 😂

Check Mumsnet for mirror thread..
Skinny weirdo stalker is obsessed with my car engine

Is it not illegal to be using a phone in the drivers seat of a car with the engine running?

When some chump in a van was sat outside my house with the engine running I went out and told him to turn it off, which he did without question. However it was 5am, I was visibly angry and dressed in nothing but my pants. Maybe that approach could work for you?

Love the 'stuffing various garden veg and fruit up her exhaust'.

DezB - I only have one rubbish neighbour but they are attached to us. Anyone who lives near a school will have issues.

Sobriety - good point.

Another neighbour isn't so polite and has gone out, told her to 'switch off now'. She's been extremely rude to him.

I'm going down the being really nice route next time. Have a nice day, blow her kisses, apologise to her for the fact I love our planet, that kind of thing. It'll take her off guard.

Me – could you just switch if off please, it’s an offence to idle your engine.

Is it?

However your funny retorts or advice would be gratefully accepted,

If you're in a position to talk to her, you're in a position to pull the keys out of the ignition and drop them down the grate.

Is it not illegal to be using a phone in the drivers seat of a car with the engine running?

This. Take photo, report her to Crimestoppers (or at least tell her that's what you're going to do unless she stops being a dick).

In seriousness, I rather suspect that she's going to carry on doing it just to spite you and "win" now. Keeping a diary for a month is a good idea, times, dates, duration.

Sounds like she fancies you and keeps her engine running, as it were, to ensure a visit from you every school day.

Cougar - Rule 123 highway code - Not to idle your engine. It's a £20 fine.
However in Cheshire they've gone a step further and it's on the spot fine.
I'm on the Gter Man, Derbyshire, Cheshire border.

Edit : Lets guess which type of car she drives? Begins with N.

Nissan.... Leaf?😉

Nobhead?

Nissan Prairie?

Gotta be a qashqai

A Naudi?

Every school day afternoon a woman parks near my home and sits there idling her engine, while waiting to pick up her 2 small children.
I asked her very politely to switch it off.
Woman – I’m on the phone.
Me – can you just switch it off please,
Woman – I’m on the phone.
Me – could you just switch if off please, it’s an offence to idle your engine.

Phone Plod, that’s two offences and easily prosecution for them.

Then get on with your life.

Best to work with the school - maybe they can get some banners attached to gates/fences and flyers put in bookbags.

You could also print off the flyer at the link below and hand it to her directly.

https://www.cleanairday.org.uk/no-idling-toolkit-download

If you’re in a position to talk to her, you’re in a position to pull the keys out of the ignition and drop them down the grate.

Easy grandad. He never mentioned she was driving a classic car.

Keys pffft.

sits there idling her engine,

Woman – I’m on the phone.

Sorry, am I missing something here? It's quite obvious what you need to do...

Is this a trick question or something?

3 points on her licence will surely make her change her ways.

PS Good on you for challenging her. Stick at it.

@ Rusty Spanner...
"A Naudi"
Brillant! 👍 😀

Well done for telling her off,I usually settle for giving them dirty looks as I walk past with the lad.

Suggest the school sends kids out to hand out leaflets to people with engines running?

I saw one school in MCR did that.

Have you explained to her why? I reckon the child in her is unwilling to be told what to do for no good reason. If you explain why, without being antagonistic or sarcastic and explain that you actually care you might get a reasonable response?

The way you've written it sounds like you're both just trying to wind each other up now but maybe you've not written the whole story word for word (which i'm not blaming you for, I just mean I don't know the whole story)

woman – you (pointing her long talon into my face) need some hobbies

I do have a hobby thanks, asking you to stop idling your engine😁

Gather evidence the n report to the police. 2 offenses every day will soon have her without a licence

Woman – get a life.

Go ride your bike or something.

Sh1t on her bonnet.

Yup - two “absolute “ offences.
Both carry fines.
One carries points.
Report
Also launch her keys somewhere she will struggle to waddle to.

A Naudi

Cracking pianist.

Here in Sweden it is a social no-no on par with drink driving   (kind of) and it gets to minus 30c here (where the emmissions are worse)

I've seen Swedes grabbing keys out of people's cars that are just running and throwing them on the ground. Normally such passive folk.  Could be an alternative?

Welll done OP, keep fighting the good fight!

Tell her that her reaction arouses you and that you really look forward to your daily social intercouse.

Ask her round for dinner and to wear a boiler suit as you have some interesting activities lined up.

Get a friend involved and you both go over to ask her politely explaining it's illegal and that it's unnecessary.

Have you considered dressing up as a ninja and running amok with a baseball bat,causing as much damage to the offending vehicles as possible?
I have. 🙂
I realise this is extreme - so I just got my son to petition the school green council.
The zombie kids protest for Halloween could be a goer this year!

I was shaking when I got home.

You've done your bit. Phone 101 report what's going on, around here they will send a policeman out at some point to check whats going on. And then get on with your life, there more important battles out there to fight.

Thanks for all the replies.

I do have a life full of hobbies, however one of them is to try and look after our planet.

This women does not let me talk. I have handed her a leaflet (written by a primary school child) she wouldn't even look at it.
Yes the conversation was all one sided because I couldn't get a word in.
She seems to think because she pays road tax its fine.
Another neighbour has also had abuse from her.
Some of the things she has shouted are quite mind boggling. The energy to turn of the engine is 1 calorie, the energy to shout and rant at a passerby must be 30 calories. She said I am the type that drives around looking for people who are running their car engines!
I had asked another lady further up the road who was really nice. She had no idea it was an offence and didn't realise she was polluting the very small children walking past the car and sitting in buggies almost at exhaust height.

I have been in touch with the head of the school, who is sending out a letter to parents. The headmistress has a walk and cycle/scoot to school policy, which has had very little take up. Sad really.

On Sunday a friend popped round to see us with his 4 year old, who had cycled to school everyday since starting. It's a shame there aren't more parents like him.

Edit: I'm actually walking to the shops when passing, I'm not actively going to stalk these 'school run' people.

Another leaflet, blown up to A3 at least with a nice sticky glue on it and stick to her windscreen.

Good job on getting somewhere albeit not direct action from the offender.
On a vaguely related note I found out recently that the official term of 'road tax' is back in use so that is not a valid point any longer. As with many on here it seems, I like to have things correct and I was having this debate with someone when I went online to prove the 'road tax' was wrong only to find that it had been reinstated. I have no idea when but I must have been in the last 18-24 month.

What Mattbee suggested. No glue, just a spray of water and some thin paper with the correct citations on for the offence, job done. You could always pretend that you did not see her in the car...

Howsyourday1...

I’ve seen Swedes grabbing keys out of people’s cars that are just running and throwing them on the ground. Normally such passive folk. Could be an alternative?

Wait, I'm allowed to do that? Hell, I'm going to have soooo much fun on my morning commute now! Does this mean I am also allowed to stop other cyclists from going through red lights? How about those fscking scooters?

Sh1t on her bonnet.

Beetle?

Honestly, ask politely, if challenged explain why you think it’s important, then walk off and try not to let it bother you.

Repeat as often as you have the stomach for.

Ah yes, the best advice is always to tell you to do exactly what you described doing in your post!

Thanks for your valuable, snippy input Dezb

The key here was to “try not to let it bother you.” Given that mouth breathing car idlers who are willing to yell abuse at folk for making reasonable requests that they obey the Highway Code are very unlikely to change their behaviour, the best you can often do is to do the right thing, then move on.

Finding a way to vent can be part of that, hence all my “yes, it’s a blind corner” posts a while back. They were mostly for my own benefit, not others’.

Now, as I advised, I’m going to move on!

You've found yourself an entitled arsehole. Bad luck.

You've done the adult polite thing. She's demonstrated her character to you.

At this point I'd do the reporting thing for phone use whilst sat in running car and sat idling near school. Regularly.

Some people, you just can't reach.

I had no idea this was actually an offence. It irritates the hell out of me so good on you for the challenge. Now just email your local PCSO, with photo of the car and let him/her take over from there. They may take a week or two to turn up but they will get there eventually. Probably won't 'book' her first time but may be enough to change behaviour. She will have to wind her chubby neck in long enough to listen to the PCSO as well!

Life's too short to get stressed by the actions of the knuckle-draggers in this world. You've tried to educate her, clearly she isn't prepared to change her obnoxious ways. You could try the police reporting route but unless you live in a quiet area I can't see them having time to respond (unless possibly the school gets involved as well as they arrange for a general awareness patrol). So I'd just advise ignoring it from now on.

Learn a new hobby - this:

[img] [/img]

There was an article recently - guy earns a living off reporting idling vehicles now.

Scatter drawing pins where she tends to park.

Personally, I'd get over it.

You might be in the right, she may indeed be committing a minor motoring offence, but there's not a chance in hell you'll change her attitudes now, in fact you've probably cemented them.

And for god's sake, don't stand there filming her with your smartphone, that's a guaranteed way to escalate the situation.

ive recently started taking my daughter to school (shes just started) and the stuff you see from parents is nuts. they have no idea half the time. Are in a blind panic the rest. They park in peoples drives and allsorts. Its genuinely been an aye opener.

There nutters. id stay well clear.

the stuff you see from parents is nuts

^^^^ THIS ^^^^

We are in our final year of hell as our girls go to secondary school next September but we have seen some things in that time - people parking over drives, parking on the zigzags outside the school (happens almost daily), people parking fully on pavements, people driving right into the school car park despite many signs telling them not to etc etc etc. The best one was when two dads had a full on fist fight right outside school over a disagreement on where one of them had dumped his Range Rover (it is Harrogate so that's normal). Morons the lot of them. In the last six years I have always parked well away from congested areas and walked my girls in (we live just short of two miles away despite it being their catchment school so walking all the way isn't really an option). Many others will do everything they possibly can to avoid walking more than a few metres.

Some of the things i've witnessed when i've picked my nephews up is truly staggering!! I don't know how women manage to get so angry about things?!?!

This is a timely post, no word of lie, i picked my nephews up on Friday and there was a cluster of parents tearing a shred off what i assume was the PE teacher because he had given their kids DOMS (sore legs from exercise!) by doing squats to 'Up Sally up, down Sally down'! They were venemous!

I don't know about drink driving be dangerous a mother on a school run in a Nissan Quashqai is lethal - mounting the pavement whilst pedestrians are on it, they'd park on the teachers desk if they could!!

I don't remeber it being so fraught when i was a kid....let alone dust ups which from teacher friends i believe is a common occurance up and down the land.....all that stress and it's not even 9am for them!! 🙂

As for the woman in question, she's clearly thick as * so i wouldn't expect anything sensible from her. Keep in mind that she is raising another (probably) bunch of *wits too....

Well if you dont want to get arrested ..grab her keys and move them about 10m or so away the car should switch off and trigger the alarm then place the keys on the roof JUST OUT OF REACH(for keyless start) ..as mentioned you could just throw a handful of nails discreetly in front of her tyres so she WILL DRIVE OVER THEM ..and legally she could be prosecuted for both the aforementioned engine idling and on the phone(you ARE considered in control of the vehicle if the engines running..)I would vindictivelt get her key take the battery out and in tern make it so she cant restart the car(usually not hard to do .)..

https://www.toolstation.com/pvc-flexible-ducting-hose/p32740

to be fair if someone had my kid doing sally sally down squats id be pretty fuming as well.

its only been a couple of weeks and im already starting to loose my sanity. cant wait for next year when i can take her on the bike.

There was an article recently – guy earns a living off reporting idling vehicles now.

Yes, but sadly in New York city, not Derbyshire:

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xypxp/you-can-now-make-thousands-of-dollars-reporting-on-idling-vehicles-in-nyc

Banana in the food pipe?

Ferris-Beuller

I don’t remeber it being so fraught when i was a kid…

the stuff you see from parents is nuts

Yep, it's the Mummies in Sportswear desperate to get there for a chat before they head to the coffee shop down the road who drive like joyriders.

The ones who launch themselves onto kerbs to save a 10m walk.

The Le Man style race to leave again, including revving engines an occasional wheelspin start.

Parking in the bus stop, just before the school bus arrives.

Sometimes I feel like I'm some kind of dogooder because we park 20m away safely and legally and walk/skip/run in.

I think there are bigger things to worry about. I would just tut and be done with it.

Don't forget starting an engine once stopped isn't without energy cost. Rough rule of thumb is the engine needs to be stopped for greater than 30 seconds to be worth it versus the energy cost of replenishing the battery. Then of course, the greater wear on the starter motor and battery etc.

Typical of modern thinking, yes its a waste of energy but stopping idling isn't going to solve anything at all. Certainly not worth worrying about.

Whereas the atmospheric conditions at platform 1-4 at St Pancras International well that has to exceed Euro legislation every single day. its horrible but its not the evil motorist so its fine.

Doctorknashoidz - I disagree.
I've asked quite a few people in the last 6 months. Mostly they've been fine. Just looking at me in that weird way and switching off. One or two have been ridiculous in their reaction. One or two have actually thanked me because they didn't know they could get fined.

This weekend there was a meeting about our local environment and the conclusion was, if one person just stopped to think and changed a little then that has a knock on effect.

This nutty woman accused me of eating food that was being kept hot from a generator. Where she got that information from is anyone's guess.

I think you'll be surprised by how short you need to stop idling for in modern engines to make it worth while. Fuel use alone is roughly 7 secs. Increased wear on the rest of the systems is another matter but i'm pretty sure the issue is more to do with fumes than using fuel.

Whereas the atmospheric conditions at platform 1-4 at St Pancras International well that has to exceed Euro legislation every single day. its horrible but its not the evil motorist so its fine.

Hmm - smells a bit like gammon to me...

I hear you Bunnyhop but sometimes, for the sake of one's own sanity and blood pressure, just leave people to their own ignorance and stupidity and she does sound spectacularly stupid.

Increased wear on the rest of the systems is another matter

I believe cars with stop/start technology have uprated batteries / starter motors to counteract this. (There was a lengthy thread on here a little while ago.)

Here, in fact.

https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/motoring-stop-start-modern-toss-or-not/

Rough rule of thumb is the engine needs to be stopped for greater than 30 seconds to be worth it versus the energy cost of replenishing the battery.

[citation needed]

You might cause increased wear if you sat there turning the engine on and off the whole time, but in reality it's utterly negligible, as is the energy cost of restarting.

She probably has start-stop technology in the car anyway but is one of those people who will switch it off when she gets in.