If you’re not yet familiar with the Citizens Air Complaint Program, then you should start reading about it as soon as possible because, one, it gives you the chance to have a healthier city and, two, it can help you earn some dollars just for being a good person. Someone even managed to cross the $125,000 mark!
Firstly, you should know the program is based on a law passed in 2019 and is available only in New York City (NYC). The document was former mayor Bill de Blasio's attempt at doing something useful before his term came to an end as he wanted to leave environmental protection legacy behind. He even managed to attract some attention for the initiative but still, a lot of people don’t know they have this right.
Essentially, supporters argue that everyone is at risk of developing health problems like asthma or cardiovascular diseases because of gasoline and diesel vehicle emissions. One way to reduce their amount was to ban certain motor vehicles from idling in the city.
To make sure the law is respected and doesn’t lead to more confrontation between Police officers and drivers, the Citizens Air Complaint Program introduced the Idling Complaint System in the Administrative Code of NYC. This is a platform that allows you to create an account on the city’s Environmental Protection website, where you can upload proof that someone was unnecessarily idling their vehicle.
Secondly, the law says that only trucks and buses are subject to penalties if they idle for more than one minute near a school zone or for more than three minutes elsewhere. Specifically, you can file a complaint against trucks that are used or maintained primarily for the transportation of property and buses that have a seating capacity of 15 or more passengers that are used for the transportation of persons. You should keep in mind that passenger vehicles can’t be reported for idling.
Photo: ian dooley on Unsplash
Moreover, you can’t go after trucks that need to have their engine on. This means ice cream trucks or delivery trucks with refrigeration units are exempt unless you can prove the engine was running without the refrigeration being turned on.
Things you have to do
Thirdly, the only thing you have to do is record that truck or bus idling. Make sure your footage is clear, your phone is running in normal parameters, and the video isn’t altered in any way. Don’t add filters or other unnecessary stuff like stickers. Also, check that your microphone is on, and the engine can be heard running, or there is visible tailpipe emission. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is also recommending the downloading of Timestamp Camera Enterprise to make sure your footage is dated correctly.
If the truck or bus you’re recording is near a school zone, then you must film it idling for a minute and 10 seconds.
If the truck or bus you’re recording is not near a school zone, then you must film it idling for at least three minutes and 10 seconds.
Photo: Matt Boitor on Unsplash
After you’re done, just upload the footage to your account and sign a sworn affidavit confirming the event happened recently and everything you’re sending to the authorities is real.
Fourthly, the minimum fine truck and bus owners will receive is $250. But it can go a lot higher than this if the database shows it’s a repeating offense. For helping the city apply penalties to those that don’t respect the law, you get a cut of 25% from each one.
Here comes the money - and a lot of health benefits, of course!
Some people have started earning a lot of money by making sure the law is respected. According to NBC NY, a man that goes by the name of Donald Blair already made $125,000. Another guy, George Packenham, made over $40,000. These guys are now part of a watch group and call themselves “the IDLE Warriors.”
NYC’s Hall confirmed Amazon is the leader in unpaid fines, but the total amount that is yet to be received goes over $8 million. As soon as the money is into the Treasury, those who reported the trucks or buses idling and submitted the necessary proof are paid for their effort.
The number of fines applied is growing yearly. Only in 2021, there were almost 11,500 tickets sent to truck and bus owners.
Finally, this is a great way of earning some extra cash just by taking a stroll around the area you live in, but you should also remember that companies like Amazon, FedEx, or USPS are soon planning to go all-electric. If you want to take advantage of the Citizens Air Complaint Program, then you should start now. You're doing it for your city!
Car shows on TV and his father's Fiat Tempra may have been Florin's early influences, but nowadays he favors different things, like the power of an F-150 Raptor. He'll never be able to ignore the shape of a Ferrari though, especially a yellow one. Full profile
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