In five years New York's yellow taxis will be looking a lot greener, starting with 1,000 hybrid cabs planned to hit the road late 2008. The remainder of the city's 13,000 cabs will be replaced with hybrids by 2012.

Canadian cities on the same course

Meanwhile over in Canada, British Columbia's Transportation Minister has announced he wants all new cab approvals to be for fuel efficient or hybrid vehicles. A cab company manager in Vancouver says the company has already realized the benefits -- hybrid cars pay for themselves in about four years due to gas savings.

The issue is raising arguments on all sides in Toronto, where some say movement to hybrids can happen even faster than in New York and others saying it just isn't feasible.

Just cut idling and drive-throughs

At least some emissions will be prevented in Toronto this week. An anti-idling blitz kicked off yesterday and will last four days. Any driver caught idling for over three minutes could face a fine up to $125. It's a good start, but it's still unnecessary for an engine to be running more than 10 seconds if the car isn't going anywhere.