Thousands of Bay Area travelers in June to rode public transit free of charge on the first Spare the Air Day of the 2006 summer smog season.
Published: July, 2006
Thousands of Bay Area travelers in June to rode public transit free of charge on the first Spare the Air Day of the 2006 summer smog season. The free transit offer is designed to get drivers out of their cars on hot days with potentially high levels of air pollution.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission committed $6.7 million in federal air quality funding for this year’s program, with another $870,000 contributed by the Air District.
On June 22, BART recorded its largest-ever Spare the Air/Free Fare ridership jump, with about 33,000 more passengers than usual on the 104-mile railway. Passengers flocked to other Bay Area rail systems as well.
The biggest percentage increases in ridership were reported by the Golden Gate Ferry system on the Larkspur-San Francisco route--climbing by more than 60 percent over an established baseline on Tue., June 20, and ridership on the Sausalito-San Francisco route soared by more than 200 percent over Tuesday levels.
Bay Area residents can register online at www.sparetheair.org to receive Spare the Air alerts. To learn more about the Spare the Air/Free Fare program, to plan your trip on transit, or to view a list of Bay Area transit agencies, go to www.511.org.
