But idling is totally unnecessary, which is why many communities have enacted ordinances against the practice.

    但是空转是完全没有必要的，这就是为什么许多国家都颁布了反对该惯例的法规。

Don't take my word about idling being ineffective, but do listen to my mechanic, Rob Maier, who runs Maier's Garage in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

    我说空转无效你不要相信，但是听听我的机械师，美国康涅格，布里奇波特地区经营梅勒汽修厂的罗伯.梅勒是怎么说的吧。

He says, "You don't really need to idle your car, because of the efficiency of modern fuel injection, which eliminated carburetors and chokes. The only reason to let the car idle at all is to get the oil circulating, but after 30 seconds that's a done deal. My truck has 150,000 miles on it, and I just throw it into gear and go."

    他说，“实际上你没必要空转你的车，因为现代车辆喷油装置的功效，淘汰了使用汽化器和阻风门。让车辆空转完全只有一个原因，就是让油循环起来，但是30秒钟空转就可以搞定了。我的卡车现在里程是150,000英里（150000*1.61公里），我总是直接发动机器就开路。”

Here are some quick facts and tips that should put the idling question to rest:

1. Driving warms the car faster than idling

这里是一些事实和提示，能彻底解答关于空转的疑问。 

1.驾驶比空转能更快地预热汽车

If your concern is not the health of the car, but simply your own creature comforts, Bob Aldrich of the California Energy Commission points out that "idling is not actually an effective way to warm up a car — it warms up faster if you just drive it."

    如果你关心的不是车辆的健康状况，而仅仅是自己身体的舒适自在与否，加利福利亚能源委员会的鲍勃.阿奇曲指出“空转实际上并不是预热车辆的有效方式——如果你干脆驾驶它，预热相对还快一些。”

The coming electric cars, such as the Nissan Leaf, will incorporate a wonderful feature that allows the owner to use a cellphone to tell the car (which is plugged into the grid) to pre-warm or pre-cool the interior. No idling necessary.

     即将面市的诸如Nissan Leaf之类的电动车辆，会带有一种妙不可言的卖点，就是允许车主使用无线电话告诉小车（插在输电网上）预热或预冷内部。不需要空转。

2. Ten seconds is all you need

2 你所需要的就是十秒钟

Environmental Defense Fund, which produced the Idling Gets You Nowhere campaign, advises motorists to turn off their ignition if they're sitting stopped for more than 10 seconds.

    开展了“空转无效”运动的环境保护基金会，建议车主停车如果超过10秒钟，就关掉点火器。

"After about 10 seconds, you waste more money running the engine than restarting it, said Andy Darrell, deputy director of the EDF Energy Program. "Switch the car off at the curb, and you'll be leaving money in your wallet and protecting the air in your community."

     “超过10秒，你运转发动机比重新启动发动机要浪费更多的钱”，环境保护基金会能源规划部门的副主任安迪.多瑞说，“在路边关掉车，你既可也把钱留在钱包里，又保护了你社区的空气”

3. Idling hurts the car

3 空转伤车

According to the Hinkle Charitable Foundation's Anti-Idling Primer, idling forces an engine "to operate in a very inefficient and gasoline-rich mode that, over time, can degrade the engine's performance and reduce mileage."

    根据亨克尔慈善基金会的反空转初级读本，空转迫使引擎“以一种非常无效且带油模式运转，一段时间后，会降低发动机性能，减少车辆里程数。

The Campaign for an Idle-Free New York City points out that idling causes carbon residues to build up inside the engine, which reduces its efficiency.

    “一个无空转的纽约城”运动指出，空转造成在引擎内部逐渐增加碳残余，这会降低引擎效率。

4. Idling costs money

Over a year of five minutes of daily idling (which causes incomplete combustion of fuel), the "Anti-Idling Primer" estimates that the operator of a V8-engine car will waste 20 gallons of gasoline, which not only produces 440 pounds of carbon dioxide but costs at least $60.

4．空转费钱

    “反空转初级读本”估算说，一个8缸的车一年内每天五分钟的日常空转（这会造成燃料不充分燃烧），会浪费20加仑的汽油，这样不仅产生了440磅的二氧化碳，还花费最少60美元。

5. Idling in the garage can kill you

5 在车库里空转可致死

Idling a car in a garage, even with the door open, is dangerous and exposes the driver to carbon monoxide and other noxious gases. If the garage is attached, those fumes can also enter the house.

    在车库里空转一辆车，即使车库门开着，也很危险，可让司机受到一氧化碳和其他有毒气体威胁。如果车库与住宅是一体的，这些气体还会进入住所。 

6. Block heaters beat remote starters

Lori Strothard of the Waterloo Citizens Vehicle Idling Reduction Task Force in Canada says, "Remote starters can too easily cause people to warm up their cars for 5 to 15 minutes, which is generally unnecessary."

 6 缸体加热器优于遥控启动器

    加拿大的“沃特卢市民减少车辆空转特派任务小组”的罗瑞.斯求司阿德说” 遥控启动器很容易就造成人们预热车辆5至15分钟，这基本是没有必要的。

A block heater, which is designed to heat the engine and can cost under $30, on a timer set to start one to two hours before driving, does the trick in very cold climates.

    用于加热引擎的缸体加热器，带有定时器，设置好于开车前一到二小时启动，其成本通常不超过30美元，在非常冷的天气使用很管用的。

7. Quick errands aren't quick enough

7 快差使还不够快

Natural Resources Canada points out that leaving your car idling while you're running into a store on an errand or going back into the house to pick up a forgotten item is another way to waste gas and pollute both your town and the planet.

    加拿大天然资源机构指出，当你跑到一个商店有事或者跑回住所去拿一些遗忘物件时，让车空转是另一种浪费油又污染城市及地球的方式。

"Leaving your engine running is hard on your pocketbook, produces greenhouse gas emissions, and is an invitation to car thieves," the agency (PDF) says.

     “让你的引擎空转费钱又造成温室气体排放，还会诱惑盗车贼。”，环境保护基金会（PDF）说。

8. Idling is bad for your health (and your neighbor's health)

8 空转对自身健康（还有邻居健康）有害

According to Minneapolis' anti-idling ordinance, "Exhaust is hazardous to human health, especially children's; studies have linked air pollution to increased rates of cancer, heart and lung disease, asthma and allergies."

    根据明尼阿波利斯州的反空转条例，“排放气体对人体健康有害，尤其对儿童有害；研究认为空气污染与癌症、心肺疾病、哮喘和过敏等有联系。

Isabelle Silverman, who runs EDF's anti-idling campaign, says that car idling "is the second-hand smoking of the outdoors. One of the problems is that cars idle close to the curb, where pedestrians are walking. And when you have a child in a stroller, they are particularly close to the tailpipe. Studies show that children's IQ levels are lower when they live near major roads with lots of traffic." (A fresh study even links autism to freeway pollution.)

    经济开发基金会反空转运动负责人伊莎贝尔.水夫曼说，车辆空转“是户外的二手烟，其中的一个问题，就是那些离行人经过的路边很近的空转车辆。如果你有一个尚在婴儿车内的小孩，他们离尾气管格外近，研究表明，当儿童居住在离交通繁忙的大马路靠近时，智力水平相对要低一些（最近的一项研究甚至表明孤独症与高速公路污染有关）。