New York ? Mayor Michael Bloomberg told his drivers to stop letting his SUVs idle after The Associated Press reported it observed the vehicles with their engines running for long periods of time while parked throughout the city.

Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser said Thursday that after learning of AP’s findings reported the previous day, the mayor “made it clear” to the police detail that drives him around the city that the administration “should set a better example.”

The city also said that “No Engine Idling” signs were installed at the mayor’s request months ago in all the Chevrolet Suburbans that transport him. The signs went up earlier this year, around the time Bloomberg signed a bill strengthening the city’s anti-idling law and promised a citywide crackdown on enforcing the 38-year-old regulation.

The signs were apparently in place when the AP conducted spot checks over the past week and found the parked vehicles idling at least eight times for periods of 10 minutes to more than an hour.

The city’s three-minute idling limit — which Bloomberg recently shortened to one minute around schools — does not legally apply to the mayor’s SUVs, which are classified as emergency vehicles.