Flesh vs Aluminium: at War with the Automobile #2

I don't know if this is because i've quit smoking (a year now), but i feel like pollution is getting much worse. Walking along Sherbrooke, i sometimes find it really difficult to breathe. Inhaling exhaust, my throat's reflex is to close the esophagus. What i don't understand is how it's legal to have exhaust pipes point toward the sidewalk, which many diesel trucks seem to have.

How is it that this person who is sitting in their car, directly affecting my health, is allowed to do this? Many people choose to walk, and yet they are the ones suffering. I try to avoid breathing while passing through the clouds of dark blankets, but why should i? I say:

Shouldn't clean air be a right?

As these words resonate in my mind, i realise they sound awefully like anti-smoking rhetoric. You know, the old "why should non-smokers be exposed to second-hand smoke?" It only seems logical that the recent smoking ban lead to pollution as the next health rights issue. Hopefully this does indeed happen (I'm still waiting for it to be legal to marry a llama since gay marriage was legalised).

I've only asked someone to turn off their idling engine once in my life (minus all the times i got paid to do it for a summer job). It felt great, after i felt safe that the big burly truck driver wouldn't beat the shit out of me. The drivers may not be inhaling carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds but we obstaining from automobilism sure are...

Of course, maybe i'm just being as asshole, as someone has commented. But maybe we should start thinking of the polluters as the assholes.