Rhode Island’s Law Against Idling Trucks Continues to Be Ignored
DEM officials have pledged to crack down in the past, but so far little has been done
January 23, 2025
PROVIDENCE — Almost 20 years after it was first passed, state officials continue to show little interest in enforcing Rhode Island’s own law against idling diesel trucks.
The law, which was passed by the General Assembly in 2006, prohibits diesel trucks from idling their engines for more than five consecutive minutes in a one-hour period. Lawmakers at the time were concerned about the health problems motor vehicle exhaust caused, including asthma, and it being one of the largest sources of air pollution in the state.
In their findings, lawmakers singled out the impact fine particulate matter from diesel exhaust had on children and seniors, noting that asthma rates were reaching public epidemic proportions in the state. Rhode Island was also an outlier in the region, as Massachusetts and Connecticut had already passed similar legislation.
Enforcement of the law is split between two entities: the state Department of Environmental Management (DEM), which often regulates outdoor pollution sources and emissions, and state and local law enforcement agencies. All three entities are empowered to write citations and tickets penalizing people for breaking the anti-idling law.
Shortly after the law was passed, DEM promulgated a number of internal regulations governing the new prohibition. Disobeying the anti-idling law carries a $100 fine, followed by fines of up to $500 for any successive offenses.
But, as ecoRI News initially reported in 2011, enforcement of the law and its provision remain incredibly lax. That story said law enforcement and state environmental officials had yet to issue a single citation or ticket enforcing the anti-idling law. That’s still true in 2025.
“DEM has not issued any penalties regarding this law,” said Kim Keough, chief of public affairs at the agency. “DEM rarely receives complaints about diesel engine idling, but in the few instances it has, DEM issued verbal or written warnings.”
Neither the Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal nor Rhode Island State Police responded to multiple inquiries from ecoRI News asking how many tickets have been issued or cases adjudicated related to the anti-idling statute.
For Rhode Island, the failure to enforce the diesel idling prohibition is another example that not all laws, especially when it comes to the environment, are created and enforced equally. While no tickets have been issued in the 18 years since the idling law became active, in 2023 alone, 20,084 speeding tickets were filed with the state Traffic Tribunal, according to the state’s most recent annual report.
Penalizing any vehicle for excessive idling might seem frivolous, but for folks who live near sites where diesel trucks congregate, it’s a daily nightmare.
For residents of lower South Providence and Washington Park neighborhoods, idling is a common complaint. Abutting the east side of the neighborhoods is the city’s industrial corridor along Allens Avenue, and for years residents have complained that many of the businesses actively flout the state’s pollution regulations.

One of the more common complaints stemming from the industrial waterfront has been the small army of diesel trucks present at most times of the day. For years residents have complained they are noisy, disturb the peace, and lower the quality of life in neighborhoods with their smell and their exhaust.
In the past, DEM officials have pledged to crack down on truck idling, but so far little has been done.
Diesel engines are more hazardous for the environment, and public health, than a regular car engine. They emit a complex mixture of gaseous and solid material stemming from the combustion processes inside the engine. The solid material is infinitesimally small; much of it is only 1/70th the diameter of human hair.
That particulate matter is not only small, it’s toxic. It’s made up of carbon particles and can include over 40 known cancer-causing compounds like benzene, hydrocarbons, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and others. At a climate-change level, diesel trucks also release nitrogen, a key greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.
Because the solid exhaust particles are toxic and small, they can be inhaled into the lungs and contribute to a wide array of respiratory illnesses, most notably asthma. The link between motor vehicle air pollution and asthma in children is well-documented; it’s a prime asthma trigger, along with other outdoor sources like emissions, smoke, and pollen.
A meta-analysis published in the scientific journal Environmental Research looked at 19 separate studies examining childhood asthma and found that children living in or attending schools near high-trafficked roads were more likely to have childhood asthma.
It’s especially a Rhode Island problem. In 2021, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that Rhode Island had the highest rate of asthma in the country, with over 12% of adults suffering from the illness.
The 2024 Rhode Island Kids Count Factbook shows that Providence children are more likely to suffer from asthma. Of the 41,021 children who live in Providence, 1,814 visited an emergency room with an asthma diagnosis between 2018 and 2022, nearly two-fifths of the statewide total.
And those asthma rates map cleanly onto the city’s environmental justice zones. For areas like Washington Park and South Providence, idling trucks are only one small brick in the wall that is environmental justice.
A 2019 report on asthma rates from the state Department of Health showed that neighborhoods abutting Allens Avenue and the industrial waterfront were in the 95th to 100th percentile for diesel particulate matter, and exposure to vehicle traffic, stemming from the area’s proximity to Interstate 95.

“We have consistently bad air here,” Linda Perri, president of the Washington Park Association, told ecoRI News last year. “We have dust from the businesses along Allens Ave., we have all the vehicles using Interstate 95. All that collectively makes for bad air, and there really is a high rate of asthma here. Everyone knows that, it’s not a secret thing, it is known.”
And a 2020 DEM study of air quality in communities near the Port of Providence found that they are “impacted by emissions from diesel trucks, marine vessels, oil and gas storage and distribution, asphalt and cement processing, metals recycling, natural gas and utility service, and large heating plants.”
Gas-guzzling vehicles are part of the problem. A report released last year by the American Lung Association estimated Rhode Island could avoid 6,570 asthma attacks in children if zero-emission, electric vehicles and other technologies were adopted over the next 15 years.
It’s an emissions problem as well, especially in Rhode Island, which lacks a plan to curb greenhouse gases emitted from vehicles (state officials recently adopted California’s electric vehicle rules, which will phase out gas-powered cars in Rhode Island over the next decade). Estimates from the federal Environmental Protection Agency estimate idling long-haul trucks contribute 11 million tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere every year; another 180,000 tons of nitrogen; and 5,000 tons of particulate matter.
Some progress had been made on the national level. Last April, the EPA finalized rules for stricter emission standards on heavy-duty trucks, buses and other large vehicles. Slated to take effect starting in model year 2027 and beyond, the rules are estimated to avoid 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions and provide $14 billion in net benefits to people, including fewer hospital visits, fewer lost work days, and fewer deaths.
But with the inauguration of President Donald Trump for a second term, the future looks less bright. The Trump administration has promised to roll back many of the climate initiatives and environmental protections passed by the Biden administration over the last few years.
Prior to Trump taking power, California officials withdrew their request for a federal waiver that would have seen commercial truckers make the switch to zero-emission vehicles, similar to the existing waiver used by California and states like Rhode Island to spur the switch to electric passenger cars and trucks. Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 20, the day he was sworn in, pledging to strip California and other states’ abilities to restrict gas-powered car sales.
I agreed on the issue that idle laws should be enforced.
But first I think your article may be accurate in regard to older diesel engines, but not newer over the last 10 years or so.
As a result of Federal regulations, diesel engines are equipped with particulate filters and a system to eliminate noxious gases.
But aside from that, yes enforcement is needed.
I see busses in Newport sit over an hour idled. Not good.
Also. If the state wants to reduce vehicle emissions how about go to LNG buses. Many cities across the country have done so.
Combing cameras and gas sensors these tickets could be created and sent out automatically. Probably only covering 3 or 4 places in the state where there is is a big problem like the Port of Providence, where lots of idling and lots of asthma meet. It woud be a money maker and when the pollution had been reduced and therefore the money dries up, the health benefits alone justify the cost
Is this why they aren’t letting people wait at the curb at TF Green airport arrivals any more? But instead everyone drives around in circles and idles out on the loop. It’s extremely wasteful. Just turn your ignition off and let us wait for passengers . I was appalled at the road rage and insanity Saturday night trying to pick up my brother-in-law there. They assume everyone is glued to a cellphone when you make a plan to be there and aren’t there it is very stressful and emotionally damaging.
Every time I read something about Rhode Island laws or policies, I am reminded of what used to be called a “third world country.” RI, like so many such countries, is lovely and full of welcoming people, but treats laws like maybe’s and policies like wonderful-ideas-for-somebody-else.
I have called the City of Pawtucket multiple times to speak with police officers about enforcing the idling truck law. I work down/across the street from habitual offenders. Each time I called, the officer ansering did not even know the law existed and thought that no one they knew of had ever written a ticket for it.
Try turning off the heat in your house some night. You complain about the environment, set the example.
Things will be worse when the truck distribution center opens on N. Main on the PVD-Pawtucket line. Those things are major pollutors from idling (as well as for other reasons). This one is within a mile of an elementary school. I agree with Nick about the generally lovely people in RI who deserve a better government. (Why aren’t we voting that way?)