Time for a New Rule of Thumb

Some guy with a really cool first name has what reads like a fairly well-researched piece up on Slate. The upshot is this: If you're one of those people who prefers to let your car idle rather than turning off the engine when standing someplace, under the belief that it takes a lot of gas to (re)start the engine, then you're wrong. If you aren't still driving a car with a car with a carburetor, that is.

The claim is that for cars with electronic fuel injection systems -- pretty much standard these days -- the amount of gas consumed by starting the engine is about the same as is consumed by running the engine for ten seconds.

Ten seconds!

Of course, you don't exactly burn up a lot of gas by idling -- well less than a gallon per hour of idling. Still, though, it's something to keep in mind, both for economic and environmental reasons.

An interesting read.