Saturday has been declared the first Spare the Air day of the summer season, according to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
Air quality is expected to be poor Saturday due to high temperatures and tailpipe exhaust, according to district officials.
“To help avoid unhealthy air quality this summer, we are asking residents to leave their car at home at least twice a week — take transit, work from home, carpool or bike to work instead of driving alone,” said Jack Broadbent, the district’s executive officer.
Spare the Air alerts are issued when ozone pollution, also known as smog, is expected to reach unhealthy levels. Ozone can cause throat irritation, congestion and chest pain, trigger asthma, inflame the lungs and worsen bronchitis and emphysema. It is especially harmful to young children, the elderly and those with respiratory and heart conditions.
There is no free transit available Saturday, and wood-burning bans are in place. Residents are advised to avoid outdoor activity during the hottest part of the day, and reduce ozone emissions by carpooling, taking transit, biking or walking.
Go to sparetheair.org or 511.org for more information on commute alternatives.
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Please leave your cars at home on Spare The Air days. The pollution is terrible for everyone’s kids. Thank you.
Of course, I will spend 2 hours taking public transportation to the event I have to attend in San Jose instead of just driving for 20 minutes.
Perhaps please don’t pollute will run errands for those who don’t have bikes, can’t walk to or have good public transportation to wherever they need to go. If we had safe, easy access to public transportation, I’d be happy to take it. Otherwise, don’t pollute can run my errands – thanks in advance.
Unsafe pollution levels only occur a few times a year. How important are your errands that you can’t do them tomorrow instead of harming our children today?
So, do I lock the kids in the house all day or drive them to Santa Cruz? Oh oh, the vote is to burn gas.
Well, gosh, let’s see…Sunday is Father’s Day & it’s always harder to do errands on a Sunday than a Saturday. If your kids’ health is that important, keep them indoors tomorrow. Since I’m a low polluting citizen w/a spouse who cycles, I feel *fine* about using the car tomorrow. We’re already not BBQing due to spare the air. Hopefully, don’t pollute, those worried about their kids can figure out how to protect them on days like tomorrow since most people will drive wherever they need to go, anyway.
Can we all get along?
Re: Can we all get along?
Nope. Not a chance. It’s my right to drive and BBQ and so on because there are no laws against it. Why should I bicycle when that would make me sweat? Besides, I’m too fat to ride because I like stuffing my face with meat and cheetos. I enjoy destroying the earth to make doing things I want to do more convenient. It’s not like the earth is precious or anything. It’s not like it’s some beautiful and mysterious and unique oasis we should be taking care of. Let’s all ruin it together, and then later we can have fun pointing fingers at each other. So much fun!
The irony is that there are comments about protecting the children when one of the problems we have are that there are too many children. The comment above is all about selfishness, but nothing has been said about being careful w/family planning as well as how we behave on days like today – & all other days.
How many people reading this use a clothesline? Car pool and/or use public transpo some of the time? Grow a bit of their own food? Don’t worship their lawn? Don’t buy a gas guzzler when it’s time for a new car?
We all have to balance convenience w/preservation. But the lack of clotheslines in the area will show you how few of us even are willing to reframe the difference between convenience, necessity & that confusing place in between.
not everyone has to have children. some people are made for other things. its the western pilgrim family oriented ideas that drive your culture. not true in ancient times when not all women would mate due to unfavorable conditions. people think they must have child to be seen as part of the group approval. btw, there have been people making good amounts of money who never used a clothes dryer for long periods! just hang em’ up in closet. they will be dry by tomorrow afternoon!