Direct Action...each and every commercial vehicle has an external master switch, designed to shut the vehicle down in the event of an emergency. I guess that the designers did really expect global warming as that particular emergency however an emergency is an emergency, no?

What do you do if you see a vehicle with it’s engine running pointlessly, simply walk up and switch it off. (I’d be prepared to pay for some small stickers that you could stick beside the master switch informing the driver of why you have turned off his engine and perhaps encourgaing him to be more thoughtful in the future)......

Well it was likely your friendly attitude that won you over as of course English is expected at the tourist office. Although you also mentioned having visited a department in the mayor’s office ?

I don’t know why so many English people take such offense at the suggestion that it might get you further if you would try to speak French to French people in France. They are generally also the same people who run around whining about all the immigrants in the UK who can’t speak English. Imagine how effective it would be if a German man came in spouting off in German about air pollution and how the laws should be changed in the UK about x y or z to the woman at the mayor’s reception desk in any British tourist town for example ... ?

If you truly have been coming here for 25 years and have some respect for the culture and environment you visit, you should 1. be able to speak half decent French by now and 2. know about the cold shoulder thing which is an integral part of the culture - someone loses their cool or gets in your face, and so you give them the cold shoulder and are not overly helpful towards them until they settle down. 3. know about the outstanding tensions between the French and English communities in Chamonix that make 1 and 2 all the more sensitive issues here than in some other parts of France.

Dust blower man would rake the leaves manually actually, since the leaves still need to be cleaned up and that is within his métier and training. Fines for running engines if that were outlawed would be handled by the existing municipal police department who also handle writing traffic tickets etc..

If you really want to help the situation of pollution in town I suggest you join the movement for making Mont Blanc a UNESCO world heritage site and get involved in some of the existing local environmentalist groups to improve things in town.

As well it could pay off to start the petition (signed by tourists and locals for example) as I mentioned in my prior post to go to the mayor’s office about getting rid of leaf blowers and to make a local law about leaving vehicles with engines running (I’d sign it as would everyone that I know in town).

Look I’ll even give you a head start. Here is a petition site online to start the campaign. If you put the wording into English, and send me the link, I will also translate it into French and we can see how many signatures we can gather in say 3-6 months using whatever method(s) we can for publicising the petition. It can then be sent to the Chamonix parks department and directly to the Chamonix mayor’s office. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/

Your comments are racist and your attitude stiknks worse than the black air of chamonix.
You are no doubt one of those crass people who start the engine of your 4x4 outside the house so its not too cold for you to get into, or maybe you are one of those cash hungry bread heads whose buisness cares only for profit and not for the valley.
Good luck!

I will have to moderate a bit before this gets too impolite.

I think Francesca is right to point out the long running problems with the buses in Chamonix (everyone complains about them) and her surprise at the apparent lack of environmental awareness of some in the town and poor communication at the tourist office and mairie.

Firechick has raises some very good ideas for how to tackle some of the problems while recognizing that road transport is one of the major issues facing the valley.

Hopefully you can continue to discuss this issue without getting too heated as you have both raised very good and interesting points.