Thursday is Summer’s Only Spare the Air Day
with Free Transit
By Laura Dudnick
Jun 16, 2008
This summer’s only Spare the Air Day accompanied by free Bay Area public transportation is scheduled for Thursday, according to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
Spare the Air days are declared when the Bay Area is expected to have poor air quality in an effort to alert the public of health hazards and reduce the number of cars on the road.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has already issued three Spare the Air days – one last Thursday and two in May — for this year’s summer season, but free transit was not provided on those days.
The air district is providing free transit on a planned Spare the Air Day in order to give residents time to plan their routes and schedules around taking public transportation, air district spokeswoman Kristine Roselius said.
The Spare the Air Day coincides with the third annual National Dump the Pump Day, which attempts to raise awareness about conserving fuel in the environment, according to Roselius.
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with Free Transit”
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Seems like this story is missing something. Am I the only one who’s curious about why there’s been a reduction in the number of free transit days this summer? Didn’t they do three or more days the last few years?
Maybe there’s not enough money from the state this year? Maybe gasoline costs too much? Maybe they found that offering a few free transit days per season doesn’t really change people’s habits?
It is good news there’s free transit this Thursday, and I like that it coincides with Dump the Pump Day. It also seems reasonable to give folks a few days notice about when the free day will occur. It just seems weird to me not to address why there will be only one free transit day this summer.
I believe the BAAQMD funds the Spare the Air program, and they have never had the money to pay for free transit. Instead, you get just half a day of free transit, but they only pay for normal services levels which means that all of the buses are severly over-crowded and going at half-speed.
It’s really just a gimmicky promotion, not a serious attempt to improve air quality on any particular day, so it doesn’t matter if they hold it on a normal day vs. a smoggy one.