Yonkers, NY Environmental Rules: Vehicle Idling Restrictions (2026)

City Code § 109-88, amended February 11, 1991 by Ordinance No. 2-1991, bars anyone from causing or permitting the engine of a motor vehicle to idle for longer than three minutes while the vehicle is parking, standing, or stopped anywhere in the city. The only exception is for a vehicle whose engine is being used to run a loading, unloading, or processing device, for example a refrigeration or hydraulic lift unit that needs the engine running to function. Legally authorized emergency vehicles are exempt from the three-minute cap entirely.

The section adds a stricter, temperature-triggered rule for buses. Once the ambient temperature exceeds 40°F, a bus as defined in § 104 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law may not idle at all while parking, standing, or stopping at a terminal point along an established route, enclosed or not, closing off the three-minute grace period that applies to ordinary vehicles. The section sits in Article IX, Stopping, Standing and Parking, alongside the city's other curbside rules, and a violation is enforced the same way as other parking and standing violations in Chapter 109, through the Office and Board created under Article IV. Under § 109-36B, parking-related fines are capped at $50 per violation unless the City Council changes that cap by resolution.