September 2010
BBC presenter Giles Dilnot hosts "Up All Night". In a 3 minute interview, Dilnot digs into the motivations behind the idle-free movement and Pakenham's very first encounter at night on Amsterdam Avenue.
BBC Interview - Part I
BBC Interview - Part II
In my first year of keeping records, I had:
The statistics were basically the same in year two but I had only 615 encounters. Less production, but I was more successful, at least with limos… because I was only successful 70% of the time in year one and I was 90% successful in year two.
So, in two years I have had 1438 total encounters, or roughly 59 a month. I’m on track in year three for the same. But key here is that 77 % will shut off their engines… with only ME asking them to do so.
Imagine how agreeable NYC citizens would be if more knew about the law (when only roughly 25% know of it) and how much quicker they would know about it… if police enforced it and fines were issued. The word would spread very quickly.
And a huge sum of money would have been raised. If I had been a police officer issuing idling tickets during this time, I could have raised $316,360 for the city, and this just while walking to and from work and weekend strolls. This calculation is based on the lowest ticket amount which is $220 but tickets for third time offenders can reach $2,000.
Mayor Bloomberg shows his support by signing the Non-Idling Law for NYC.