August 29, 2007
Your Commute: Did You Spare The Air?
So the Chronicle says not that many people took advantage of free public transportation today for the first Spare The Air day of the season, but the BART train we were on was certainly pretty crowded. We love Spare The Air days, where all of a sudden the kids that everyone always says they never see in San Francisco materialize out of nowhere and ride the rails all day. (Or for today, until 1 p.m., when the BART gates slam shut.) We almost asked a group of giggling youth on the platform "shouldn't you be in school?" but didn't want to go all Principal Ed Rooney from Ferris Bueller's Day Off on them. Watch out for Ferraris falling from garages later today!
And for those of you commuting by car today, don't you wish you spared the air? A truck overturned right at the 92/101 S interchange (those ramps are pretty steeply banked) around 4 a.m. this morning, and they didn't get the ramp reopened until 8.
On the other hand, be careful sparing the air today too -- a man hit by a T-Third is the fourth MUNI-related pedestrian death accident in two weeks (two of which were fatal).
Picture from CBS 5.
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The hordes of wilding youth failed to materialize on my morning commute down Market street. The hordes of european tourists, however, materialized right on schedule.
According to the article, it was "minor injuries." Not even in MUNI-speak is death a minor injury. Only 2 of the four MUNI/pedestrian interactions were fatal. Still, two too many!
True! Not as deadly as I'd hysterically said above! Sorry about that, MUNI! Correction forthcoming.
Now that's service! :)
I played it safe. I hitched a carpool ride to work in a Prius. 3 in a Prius, now that should count as super-carpool. They should pay us $4 when crossing the bridge!
i ride bart to work five days a week, from downtown SF to dublin/pleasanton. round trip it's just under $10. it would have been very nice for me to get the free trip but alas, i work second shift, and i don't take the train until 2:30 and i don't leave dublin until 11:30. i already have a muni bus pass, so spare the air means nothing to me anymore.
commute doesn't always mean 6 to 9 a.m.
and yeah a discount would be a nice alternative, but i'd imagine that would be much more difficult to program than it is to just prop the gates open for a few hours.
Yeah, I saw lots of kids on the East Bay-bound trains today. A few of them walked from car to car on a couple of different trains.
Also, I can't believe they are thinking of making a sequel to Ferris Bueller! I would probably still go see it though...
Anyone who thinks riding in a Prius is doing anything for the environment other than salving their ignorant, liberal egoes is a fool who should be put down for sheer stupidity.
egos, that is.
I think Phil Ochs said it best:
"liberals, 10 degrees to the left of center in good times. 10 degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally."
I usually work at home so I always spare the air. When I do run errands, I try to walk or take transit.
Alas, today I had scheduled medical and personal appointments that could not easily be changed, nor would transit be possible because I had to go to three different cities and could not spend all day on buses and trains. I'm afraid I drove over 100 miles over the course of the day, alone....
Still, my overall driving this year is down well over 50%.