The warmer temperatures heralding summer’s characteristically late arrival in the Bay Area also bring a greater likelihood of air pollution creeping up to unhealthy levels.
An interesting fact to note is that curbing drive times is second nature for many Bay Area residents come the weekend, when people share rides to enjoy time together and combine errands/trips so that they have more time to do the things they want to do. "It’s the weekdays and the work commute where people seem to need encouragement,” says a Bay Area Air Quality Management District rep.
By Bill Picture
Published: September, 2012
The warmer temperatures heralding summer’s characteristically late arrival in the Bay Area also bring a greater likelihood of air pollution creeping up to unhealthy levels.
When the mercury rises, smog-watchers at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) keep a close eye on the two-dozen-plus monitors scattered throughout the region, ready to call a Spare the Air Day when longer days, lighter winds and higher temperatures threaten Bay Area air quality. "Those are the essential ingredients," said BAAQMD Communications Manager Kristine Roselius. "It’s like the recipe for smog."
According to BAAQMD, longer days mean more hours for heat to build. That heat acts as a cap, trapping air pollution, mostly from vehicles and industrial sources, close to the ground. There, without a brisk wind to send it on its merry way, it hangs out right in our breathing zone.
A Bay Area brainchild
Nowadays, local weather forecasts in just about every part of the country include an air quality report, and "Spare the Air" has become a widely recognized phrase meaning "smog levels are high—so jog on the treadmill instead of the track and leave the car at home if you can."
The phrase "Spare the Air" was coined in the Bay Area. "Born and bred right here 21 years ago," Roselius said proudly.
The goals of the Spare the Air program are the same as they were at its inception over two decades ago. First, BAAQMD wants to alert particularly smog-susceptible Bay Area residents—persons with respiratory illnesses, elderly persons and persons with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, children under 14, athletes who exercise outdoors, and people who work outdoors—that air quality is poor.
Second, and just as important, BAAQMD wants to encourage everyone within earshot to do whatever they can to avoid adding to the problem—by working from home, or carpooling, walking, biking or taking public transit to and from work.
"On weekends, we naturally curb our own driving times," Roselius said. "We carpool places so we can spend more time with our friends and family; and we try to combine chores or trips so we have more time to do the things we want to do. It’s the weekdays and the work commute where people seem to need encouragement."
Is this thing on?
BAAQMD surveys commuters throughout the year and asks them to report the number of trips they’ve taken. The results of these surveys indicate that commuters are indeed taking the agency’s advice to heart. Last summer, for instance, commuters reported taking 215,000 fewer trips on each Spare the Air day, which translated to 1.4 million fewer miles traveled each of those days.
But without taking commuters’ word for it, it’s sometimes difficult to measure the success of the program. For instance, the Chronicle reported a slight increase in paid tolls on the Bay Bridge on a recent Spare the Air Day, as well as a slight drop in BART ridership, indicating that commuters ignored BAAQMD’s call to action and drove to work anyway.
But Roselius points to the program’s 76 percent recognition rate as further proof of its overall power to change the behavior of Bay Area commuters.
"That’s an amazing number. It means that 76 percent of people know what Spare the Air is and know what it means," she said. "If you’re at all familiar with marketing and advertising, you know that companies and brands pay billions of dollars for that kind of recognition."
It’s equally difficult to measure the success of the Spare the Air program by the number of Spare the Air alerts made in any one season. In fact, it’s nearly impossible because that number is as closely tied to the Bay Area’s unsteady weather as it is to the overall quality of the region’s air.
"It really all depends on how hot it gets, and that varies, sometimes wildly, from year to year," Roselius said. "In order to have a Spare the Air Day, you have to have pollution and heat."
There were 25 Spare the Air Days in 1996. There were only eight in 2011. From those numbers, we can safely deduce that Bay Area air quality improved over that five-year period.
But there have already been seven Spare the Air Days this summer. "And some of the hottest weeks are still ahead of us," said Roselius. In other words, we’re likely to have more Spare the Air Days this summer than last, even though Bay Area air quality in general continues to improve.
Backed by business
Because BAAQMD believes that changing the behavior of the Bay Area’s 1.5 million-plus commuters will drastically improve air quality in the region, it has enlisted the help of employers to help promote Spare the Air’s mission.
To that end, the agency launched the "Great Race for Clean Air" two years ago in partnership with 511 Rideshare, the Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance, 511 Contra Costa and the San Francisco Department of the Environment.
For this year’s Great Race, which kicks off on September 1, the employees of participating companies will utilize commute alternatives such as public transit, carpooling, biking or walking, and log their commutes using 511 Rideshare’s online Trip Diary. When the race ends on October 31, results will be tallied and prizes awarded for, among other achievements, the highest number of "clean commute days," the highest carbon dioxide savings, and the highest employee participation rate.
"People get really competitive, it’s kind of crazy," Roselius said. "But they have a lot of fun with it. It’s not like anyone gets voted off the island or anything."
Nearly 200 companies participated in last year’s Great Race. Together, they helped eliminate more than 850,000 pounds of carbon dioxide pollution. As of August 17, 215 companies had already signed up for this year’s Great Race.
"In the end, what we’re hoping is that people will try out public transit or some other commute alternative, and that they’ll like it and keep doing it," said Roselius. "Just them trying it, I see that as a huge success."
For more information, visit www.sparetheair.org.
Did you now that the phrase "Spare the Air" was coined in the Bay Area? The program was born twenty-one years ago, but its mission hasn't changed — to alert particularly smog-susceptible Bay Area residents that air quality is poor, and encourage more commuters to bike, bus, ferry, carpool or walk to work.
The Bay Area's Spare the Air program, which promotes the use of commute alternates such as bicycles and public transit, has a 76% recognition rate. That means that more than three-quarters of Bay Area residents know what a Spare the Air Day means. There were only eight Spare the Air Days last summer, compared to 25 in 1996.
