50 state vehicle codes read on one day. 34 prohibit it, 9 only if the car was unlocked.
Car Idling Laws by State: Leaving It Running Unattended
Which states prohibit leaving a car running with nobody in it, what each section actually says, how far the chapter carrying it reaches, and the separate emissions rule a search for this returns instead.
34
States that prohibit it
of the 50 codes read
9
Where the lock decides it
the clause every roundup drops
20
Confined to a road
by a scope sentence, not by the section
16
States with an emissions idling limit
14 publish a reachable figure
The finding
The law you want is a theft law, not an idling law
Type the question and the results come back about emissions. Those are real rules, but they are the wrong ones: an idling limit is an air quality regulation, written by a state environmental agency, and only 16 of the 50 states publish one. Most of them are aimed at buses and at trucks above a weight, and 2 name the regulation without putting a figure anywhere a reader can reach it.
What actually reaches a car standing in a driveway with the engine running is an unattended motor vehicle section, and it lives in the vehicle code beside the rules about stopping and standing. It was written to stop cars being taken. 34 states carry one and 16 do not. 13 states run both laws at once, and 3 publish an idling limit while carrying no unattended section at all, which is how a state ends up looking stricter in a search result than it is on the question being asked.
The bar below splits the fifty by what their section does. Four of the five bands are one colour at four depths, because they are the same rule drawn tighter or looser by legislatures that never consulted each other: everywhere the car is standing, then a public way, then a highway, then nothing at all. The 9 sit outside that ramp in a colour of their own, because they are not a point on it. There the answer turns on a fact about the car rather than a fact about the place.
5Always
9If unlocked
17Highways
3Public ways
16No section
Frost thick enough to bury the wipers is the reason the question gets asked at all. Every state in the tables below wrote its answer before the first remote starter existed. “Car Wipers Frost 396”, Gillfoto, CC BY-SA 4.0
The clause that decides it
9 states prohibit it only if the car was left unsecured
In Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, New Hampshire, Ohio and Texas, the operative sentence is built around an unsecured vehicle or a key left in the ignition. A car left locked with the engine running is not what those sentences describe. A car left unlocked with the key in it plainly is.
That is the difference between "prohibited" and "prohibited if you left it unlocked", and it is one clause long. It is also the first thing a summary drops, which is why every one of the nine sentences is reproduced below in full. They are not the same sentence: some name the key, some name the ignition, some turn on the word secured and leave the definition to the chapter.
The 9 states whose section is built around an unsecured vehicle, read September 23, 2026.
(1) A person driving or in charge of an unlocked motor vehicle shall not permit it to stand unattended without first stopping the engine, locking the ignition, removing the key from the ignition, and effectively setting the brake thereon. When the vehicle is standing upon any grade, the person shall turn the front wheels to the curb or side of the highway in such a manner as to prevent the vehicle from rolling onto the traveled way.
(1) A person driving or in charge of any motor vehicle may not permit it to stand unattended without first stopping the engine, locking the ignition, and removing the key.
No person driving or in charge of a motor vehicle shall permit it to stand unattended without first locking the vehicle if the engine is running, effectively setting the parking brake and, when standing upon any grade, turning the front wheels to the curb or side of the highway. The provisions of this section do not apply to motor vehicles on private property.
Except for a law enforcement officer or an operator of an authorized emergency vehicle performing his or her official duties, no person driving or in charge of a motor vehicle shall permit it to stand unattended without first stopping the engine, locking the ignition, removing the key from the ignition, effectively setting the brake thereon and, when standing upon any perceptible grade, turning the front wheels to the curb or side of the highway.
(a) No person driving or in charge of a motor vehicle shall permit it to stand unattended without first stopping the engine, locking the ignition, removing the key from the ignition, effectively setting the brake thereon and, when standing upon any grade, turning the front wheels to the curb or side of the highway.
(a) Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section, a person driving or otherwise in charge of a motor vehicle may not leave it unattended until the engine is stopped, the ignition locked, the key removed, and the brake effectively set.
I. No person driving or in charge of a vehicle shall permit it to stand unattended without first stopping the engine, locking the ignition, removing the key, and effectively setting the brake thereon and, when standing upon any grade, turning the front wheels to the curb or side of the way, unless such vehicle has been started by remote control car starter. This paragraph does not prohibit a person in charge of a vehicle from idling the vehicle unattended on his or her own property.
(A) No person driving or in charge of a motor vehicle shall permit it to stand unattended without first stopping the engine, locking the ignition, removing the key from the ignition, effectively setting the parking brake, and, when the motor vehicle is standing upon any grade, turning the front wheels to the curb or side of the highway.
(a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), an operator may not leave a vehicle unattended without:(1) stopping the engine;(2) locking the ignition;(3) removing the key from the ignition;(4) setting the parking brake effectively; and(5) if standing on a grade, turning the front wheels to the curb or side of the highway.
Where the duty stops
20 chapters reach a road and nowhere else
The commonest question behind this one is about a driveway, and in 20 states it is not answered by the section at all. It is answered by a scope provision at the front of the chapter saying what the chapter applies to, usually a highway or a way as the statute defines that word. A reader who finds the section and stops there has read half of it.
5 states carry no such limit, so nothing in the statute separates a driveway from a street. Either way a city ordinance can reach private ground, and that is a municipal question rather than a state one. The scope sentences below are quoted from the chapters they open.
The 20 states whose chapter carries a scope provision confining the duty to a road, read September 23, 2026. Every one is on its own state page.
The provisions of this chapter relating to the operation of vehicles refer exclusively to the operation of vehicles upon highways except: (1) Where a different place is specifically referred to in a given section.Ala. Code Section 32-5A-50
The traffic regulations apply exclusively to the equipping, condition, movement or operation of a vehicle, bicycle, motorcycle, motor-driven cycle, person or animal upon a highway or a state-operated and maintained ferry facility except where a limited application or a different place is specifically referred to in a section.13 AAC 02.480
The provisions of this division refer exclusively to the operation of vehicles upon the highways, unless a different place is specifically referred to.Cal. Veh. Code 22515
(a) The provisions of this title relating to the operation of vehicles refer exclusively to the operation of vehicles upon highways except: (1) Where a different place is specifically referred to in a given section.21 Del. C. § 4182
The provisions of parts III to XIV relating to the operation of vehicles refer exclusively to the operation of vehicles upon highways except, where a different place is specifically referred to in a given section.HRS 291C-121
''Way'', any public highway, private way laid out under authority of statute, way dedicated to public use, or way under the control of park commissioners or body having like powers.M.G.L. c. 90, § 13
The provisions of this chapter relating to the operation of vehicles refer exclusively to the operation of vehicles upon highways except: 1. Where a different place is specifically referred to in a given section. 2. The provisions of Articles 9 and 25 shall apply upon highways and elsewhere throughout the state.Miss. Code Ann. 63-3-909
A. The provisions of Chapter 66, Article 7 NMSA 1978 relating to the operation of vehicles refer exclusively to the operation of vehicles upon highways, except where a different place is specifically referred to in a given section. B. The provisions of Sections 66-7-201 through 66-7-215, 66-7-352.5, 66-8-102 and 66-8-113 NMSA 1978 apply upon highways and elsewhere throughout the state.NMSA 1978, Section 66-7-353
The provisions of this title apply upon public highways, private roads open to public motor vehicle traffic and any other parking lot, except where a different place is specifically referred to in a given section.N.Y. Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1210
(32) Public Vehicular Area. - Any area within the State of North Carolina that meets one or more of the following requirements: a. The area is used by the public for vehicular traffic at any time, including by way of illustration and not limitation any drive, driveway, road, roadway, street, alley, or parking lot upon the grounds and premises of any of the following:N.C.G.S. § 20-163
The provisions of this chapter relating to the operation of vehicles refer exclusively to the operation of vehicles upon the highways except: 1. Where a different place is specifically referred to in a given section. 2. The provisions of Chapter 10 of this title and Article IX of this chapter shall apply upon highways, turnpikes and public parking lots throughout the state.47 O.S. 11-1101
(a) General rule.--Except as provided in subsection (b), the provisions of this part relating to the operation of vehicles refer exclusively to the operation of vehicles upon highways except where a different place is specifically referred to in a particular provision.75 Pa.C.S. § 3701
The provisions of chapters 12 — 27 of this title relating to the operation of vehicles refer exclusively to the operation of vehicles upon highways and on all state, city or town owned public property except: (1) Where a different place is specifically referred to in a given section.R.I. Gen. Laws § 31-22-1
The provision of this chapter relating to the operation of vehicles refer exclusively to the operation of vehicles upon highways, except: (1) When a different place is specifically referred to in a given section; and (2) That the provisions of Articles 9 and 23 shall apply upon highways and elsewhere throughout the State.S.C. Code Ann. SECTION 56-5-2570
The provisions of this chapter and chapter 10, parts 1-5 of this title, relating to the operation of vehicles, refer exclusively to the operation of vehicles upon highways, except where a different place is specifically referred to in a given section.Tenn. Code Ann. 55-8-162
The provisions of this chapter relating to the operation of vehicles refer exclusively to the operation of vehicles upon highways except: (1) Where a different place is specifically referred to in a given section. (2) The provisions of RCW 46.52.010 through 46.52.090, 46.61.500 through 46.61.525, and 46.61.5249 shall apply upon highways and elsewhere throughout the state.RCW 46.61.600
Twenty of these sections sit in a chapter that reaches only a highway or a public way. The line those chapters turn on runs across the bottom of this frame, and it is nowhere in the section a reader would have found. “A dusting of snow on the front of a house and driveway along Aqueteong Lane, Ewing Township, Mercer County, New Jersey”, Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0
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The other law
The 16 states that publish an emissions idling limit
These are the rules a search returns, and they are worth knowing on their own terms: 14 of the 16 publish a figure a driver can act on, and the rest publish the regulation and leave the number somewhere an ordinary reader will not find it. Where the figure was not reachable on the day, the citation is printed and no number is invented in its place.
Read the scope column before the limit column. Most of these regulations cover diesel vehicles above a weight, or buses, or fleets, rather than a car on a residential street. The last column says whether the same state also carries an unattended vehicle section, which is the law that would actually be reaching the car.
16 states publishing an emissions idling limit, read September 23, 2026. Figure first, then the regulations that name no reachable number.
5 consecutive minutes when the vehicle is not in motion
any motor vehicle engine, with exceptions for traffic, mechanical difficulty, heating and cooling or auxiliary equipment, reaching operating temperature, and the vehicle's intended use
No more than 5 consecutive minutes in any 60-minute period above 0 C (32 F); No more than 15 consecutive minutes in any 60-minute period at or between -23 C (-10 F) and 0 C (32 F); No limit below -23 C (-10 F)
all motor vehicles, with the limit set by outdoor temperature
The other law on these pages. An idling limit is an air quality regulation, written by an environment department, measured in minutes of engine running, and it is what most searches about this return. “Car being checked at an auto emission inspection station in Norwood, Ohio (DOCUMERICA, NARA 557848)”, Lyntha Scott Eiler for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Public Domain
What the rules let through
39 exemptions, across 22 states
An exemption narrows a prohibition, which makes it load bearing in exactly the way the prohibition is, so none of these is paraphrased. Several states wrote one in once remote starters became common, and those are the ones most readers are looking for. Others exempt a vehicle being loaded, a vehicle in a service operation, or a vehicle whose engine runs a piece of equipment rather than the wheels.
Each is quoted below from the sentence that creates it, under the state that wrote it, with the chip saying what that state’s underlying rule does. The states are ordered by how many they wrote.
Maine and Connecticut wrote exemptions of the same kind, but into an idling limit rather than into a prohibition on leaving the engine running, because neither carries one. Those sit on their own pages beside the limit they narrow.
an emergency vehicle on duty with an activated antitheft device
(a) An authorized emergency vehicle while in the performance of official duties and the vehicle is equipped with an activated antitheft device that prohibits the vehicle from being driven;
delivery vehicles making deliveries and waste collection vehicles collecting
(b) A licensed delivery truck or other delivery vehicle while making deliveries; (c) A solid waste or recovered materials collection vehicle while collecting such items; or
An unattended motor vehicle shall not include an unattended locked motor vehicle with the engine running after being started by a remote starter system.
(1) A person driving or in charge of an unlocked motor vehicle shall not permit it to stand unattended without first stopping the engine, locking the ignition, removing the key from the ignition, and effectively setting the brake thereon.
(4) As used in this section: (a) "Adequate security measures" includes, but is not limited to: (I) Using a vehicle that requires a key to put the vehicle into gear and move the vehicle; (II) Keeping a keyless start fob out of proximity of the vehicle; or (III) Employing steering wheel security devices. (b) "Remote starter system" means a device installed in a motor vehicle that allows the engine of the vehicle to be started by remote or radio control.
a remote keyless ignition start, for up to five minutes
(i) Is in charge of a motor vehicle that has had the engine started using a remote keyless ignition system and has been operating unattended for up to 5 consecutive minutes when the vehicle is not in motion; or
a locked vehicle on private property not open to the public, for up to five minutes
(ii) Allows a motor vehicle that is locked and is on private property not open to the public to operate unattended for up to 5 consecutive minutes when the vehicle is not in motion.
a law enforcement or animal control vehicle with a cat or dog inside
(1) When a cat or dog is left in the unattended vehicle of an on-duty law enforcement officer or an animal control officer, the provisions of subsection (a) of this section do not apply to the law enforcement officer or the animal control officer.
The requirements of this section relating to the stopping of the engine, locking of the ignition, and removing the key from the ignition of a motor vehicle do not apply to any of the following: (1) A motor vehicle that is parked on residential property;
emergency vehicles responding, and vehicles whose engine power is loading or unloading goods
except a person having control or charge of a police, fire or other emergency vehicle in the course of responding to an emergency or a person having control or charge of a motor vehicle while engaged in the delivery or acceptance of goods, wares or merchandise for which the vehicle's engine power is necessary for the loading or unloading of such goods, wares or merchandise
vehicles being serviced, and engine driven loading, are outside the five minute idling cap
This section shall not apply to (a) vehicles being serviced, provided that operation of the engine is essential to the proper repair thereof, or (b) vehicles engaged in the delivery or acceptance of goods, wares, or merchandise for which engine assisted power is necessary and substitute alternate means cannot be made available
II. No person shall start a vehicle by remote control unless the doors of the vehicle are locked; the doors shall remain locked until the operator arrives at the vehicle.
provided, however, the provision for removing the key from the vehicle shall not require the removal of keys hidden from sight about the vehicle for convenience or emergency.
A driver may, for the purpose of getting away from the place of standing, move another vehicle which is so placed he cannot get his vehicle out; provided, however, that immediately thereafter he shall reset the brake and, if on a grade, turn the front wheels to the curb or side of the highway. This privilege is subject to the limitation set forth in subdivision (e) of section twelve hundred two.
However, the provision for removing the key from the vehicle shall not require the removal of keys hidden from sight about the vehicle for convenience or emergency.
heating in cold weather, within the diesel idling rule
2. Vehicles idling when it is necessary to operate defrosting, heating, or cooling equipment to ensure the health or safety of the driver or passengers. In the case of providing heat, the exemption allows idling for up to 15 minutes per hour when temperatures are between 0 degrees and 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
defrosters and other safety equipment are exempt from the idling limit
(E) idling is necessary to operate safety equipment such as windshield defrosters, and operation of the equipment is needed to address specific safety concerns;
The rest send a reader back to the general penalty provision for the chapter, which is usually a misdemeanour with a cap and is several pages away from the section that created the duty. Where a state did print something where a reader would find it, the wording below is the statute’s own.
A penalty clause is not a forecast. What it says and what a court does with it are different questions, and only the first of them is on this page.
18 states that print a penalty inside the section, read September 23, 2026.
a misdemeanor, punished on a first conviction by a fine of not more than $100.00 or by imprisonment for not more than 10 days where the chapter provides no other penalty
a misdemeanor, punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more than thirty days where the chapter provides no other penalty
a misdemeanor, fine of not less than $1 or more than $200
Where there is nothing to find
16 states have no unattended vehicle section
That is an answer rather than a gap, and in several states it is a recent one: a legislature struck the section and the old text went on being quoted for years afterwards, which is the live hazard in this whole subject and the reason every line on this site carries its citation and its link.
Where a state repealed rather than never wrote, the reading says so in the third column. 3 of these states run an emissions idling limit anyway, which is the pairing most likely to mislead: the search returns the idling rule, the reader assumes it is the one being asked about, and the state in fact has nothing on the question at all.
16 states with no unattended motor vehicle section addressing the engine, read September 23, 2026.
Georgia used to require a driver leaving a vehicle unattended to stop the engine, lock the ignition and set the brake, but the General Assembly repealed that section in 2007, so the Uniform Rules of the Road now say nothing about leaving a vehicle running and the state air quality rules set no idling time limit either.House Bill 144 (AS PASSED HOUSE AND SENATE), 2007-2008 Regular Session, Georgia General Assembly
Iowa's unattended motor vehicle section says only that a vehicle left unattended on a perceptible grade must have its brake set and its front wheels turned, and it says nothing about leaving the engine running.Iowa Code 2026, Section 321.362, Iowa Legislature
Maine's motor vehicle code has no section barring a driver from leaving a vehicle running unattended, and the state idling limit of five minutes an hour reaches commercial vehicles and gasoline vehicles other than private passenger cars, so it does not reach a family car warming up.Title 29-A, §2068: Parking, Maine Revised Statutes, Office of the Revisor of Statutes
West Virginia repealed its unattended motor vehicle section in 2018, so the state code no longer carries a rule about stopping the engine or taking the key before walking away from a vehicle.West Virginia Code § 17C-14-1, West Virginia Legislature
Ordered by what the section does rather than by name, so the states that prohibit it wherever the car is standing sit at the top and the 16 with nothing at all sit at the bottom. The order is a finding in itself: it does not track how cold a state gets, and it does not track how often anybody there needs to warm a car up.
Fifty state vehicle codes read September 23, 2026.
No sectionNo unattended vehicle section in the code
W.S. 31-5-509
No
No
Car idling and unattended vehicle questions
In 34 states, yes, and it is a theft provision in the vehicle code that says so rather than any environmental rule. 16 states carry no such section at all. Of the 34, 9 make the offence depend on the car having been left unlocked or the key left in it, and 20 sit in a chapter that applies to highways or public ways and nowhere else. Every one of the fifty is on this page with the sentence it was read from.
Because it returns the emissions idling limit, which is a separate law with a separate purpose. Only 16 states run one, 14 of them printing a figure a reader can act on, and they are mostly written for buses and for trucks above a weight rather than for a car in a driveway. 3 of the 16 have an idling limit and no unattended vehicle section, which is how a state ends up looking stricter in a search result than it is on the question being asked.
Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, New Hampshire, Ohio and Texas. In each of them the operative sentence is built around an unsecured vehicle or a key left in the ignition, so a car left locked and running is not what the section describes. The nine sentences are quoted in full further down, because the clause is one word long in several of them and a summary loses it.
That depends on the scope provision at the front of the chapter rather than on the section itself. 20 states confine the duty to a highway or to a way as their statutes define it, and a driveway is outside that. Five carry no such limit, so nothing in the statute separates a driveway from a street. A city ordinance can reach private ground in either case, and that is a municipal question rather than a state one.
18 states print the penalty inside the section, ranging from a traffic infraction to a fine named in dollars, and they are set out on this page in the statute's own wording. The rest leave it to the general penalty provision for the chapter, which is usually a misdemeanour with a cap, and the section that sets it is linked beside each state.
Several states wrote one in once remote starters became common, and every exemption of that kind found in the reading is quoted on this page under the state that wrote it. 45 exemptions were read across 24 states in total. An exemption narrows a prohibition, so each is reproduced from the sentence that creates it rather than summarised.
All 50 states were read on September 23, 2026, off each state's own published code, and every quote links back to the section it came from. Repealed sections are the live hazard here: several states struck their unattended vehicle provision years ago and the old text is still quoted widely, which is one reason every line on this page carries its citation and its link.
Fifty state vehicle codes, and the environmental regulations of the 16 states that publish an idling limit, read September 23, 2026. Every prohibition, scope provision, exemption and penalty above links to the document it was published in and is reproduced in that document’s own wording. Legislatures amend these between sessions and a repealed section stays in circulation for years afterwards, so the link beside a quote is what governs on the day. What each state wrote is what these tables carry: the offence, the clause it turns on, how far the chapter reaches, what the legislature exempted, and the sentence it set.
