I deeply empathize and sympathize with the challenge. I also failed to choose "congenitally rich" at birth, and I hope to remedy this error on my next iteration.
But seriously, I grew up very poor and left my abusive home at 16. I was homeless twice. Once in my late teens and again in my mid-20s. Not "crashing on my friends' couches" homeless, but rather "living in the woods and dumpster diving for food" homeless.
I bring this up as empathy by way of anecdote, and also as acknowledgement of my immense luck and privilege. I know that reaching a place of relative comfort is fucking hard in our modern environment. What's an even bigger pisser is that cost of living is stupid, the systems required for modern life are expensive, and the attacks on our attention, focus, health, and well-being are legion.
So it comes down to: is your position yet painful enough for you to want to do something about it?
Idling engines chap my ass. But TINSTAAFL.
Auto stop is terrible for engines; the majority of engine wear in passenger automobiles occurs at startup. Also, during auto stop, the catalytic converter cools down a bit, so emissions go up. More wear —> more emissions —> more waste.Edit: For my rebuttal, I started digging into this. While the sources I found are still "auto technician says so," it looks like engines with auto-stop are built for more start-stop cycles. I was operating on outdated information. Automobile engines were/are typically designed for 100k to 150k starts. In trying to find more information about auto-stop, the overall consensus seems that auto-stop engines are designed for >300k starts. Moreover, there seem to be some accounts indicating that exhaust temperature is part of the auto-stop monitoring, which would make sense and keep the emissions controls running properly.
So, thanks to @borkborkbork, @0ops, and @Janx for prompting me to get updated information.
But as a bike commuter, auto stop was pleasant in traffic, at least until everyone suddenly started up again and then stomped on the pedal.
The wholesale gutting of all attempts at environmental protection is an interesting choice for the "protect the children" party. But even as an avid car hater,
I'm not sure this is a huge loss.