Results tagged “sparetheair”

Noting that today's warm weather throughout most of the Bay Area is simply unbearable, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has declared today a Spare the Air Day. "Hot temperatures and light winds are expected to produce unhealthy air throughout the region, so the district is encouraging commuters to drive less, take public transit, walk, bike, carpool, link necessary trips and postpone errands, if possible," reports CBS 5. And, as always, there will be NO free transit. (Alas.)

Today, August 10th, is a 'Spare the Air' day in the Bay Area due to the ugly, intense heat we're experiencing. While 'Spare the Air' days used to mean a free day of BART and Muni transit, that is no longer the case. Instead, you are now urged to carpool, take public transit, bike or walk to work (or wherever) help to reduce smog pollution. Today will be the hottest day this week -- it should get up to 100-degrees inland! -- with very slight cooling expected to come our starting tomorrow.

Due to today's arguably miserable weather -- 88 degrees in downtown SF as of 2 p.m.! 92 degrees at Mineta San Jose International Airport! SFist Editor's Caramello liquefied beyond recognition! -- today's Spare the Air Day has been extended until Tuesday. That is to say, you should take public transit in lieu of driving, turn up the air conditioner if you're harboring infants or the elderly in your home or office, "avoid using gas-powered lawn movers and leaf blowers," cook indoors and not on a barbecue (AKA "grilling" to you foodies); and keep the Aqua Net to a minimum. Public transit, we should point out, is no longer free on Spare the Air Day. Alas.

Concerned about your right to feel toasty, Duraflame has filed a lawsuit against the Bay Area Air Quality Management District for their 'Spare the Air' days, which bans the burning combustible materials (i.e., Duraflame logs) on days brimming with notably unhealthy air. The lawsuit claims that the air quality district failed to prove the region's need to limit the use of their logs. Duraflame spokesman Chris Caron said, "The district has failed to follow procedures to define why fire logs should be included in the solid fuel wood category with firewood, and nor did they make an adequate attempt to quantify the effectiveness of the new control measures." We can't imagine this lawsuit will help the company in any way whatsoever, other than making them look like a greedy and anti-green company. But there you have it. Eight 'Spare the Air' days have been called since the winter season started.

Resident in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southern Sonoma and southwestern Solano counties are forbidden -- forbidden! -- to burn wood or fire logs in fireplaces, wood stoves, outdoor stoves or any other type of fire receptacle. Today's winter 'Spare the Air Day' goes from noon today through noon Friday. In other news, it's 1,000 degrees outside today.

Yum! Did you smell something nasty in downtown SF yesterday? Some people described it like raw sewage, and others like rotting meat. Turns out it was from the sewage holding system, which was ripening in the sun faster than it was getting flushed into the system.

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!

A warm spell is rolling into the Bay Area -- so it's time for our perennial post complaining about how much we haaaaaaate it when it's hot. Bring back the fog! Bring back the fog!

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You know who doesn't want to Spare The Air anymore? BART. Disturbed by the uptick in crime as a result of the all-day free rides (on that last Friday of Sparing The Air, the BART police went on twice as many calls as usual), the BART police chief has proposed that they go back to just making BART free during commute hours on extra hot and smoggy days. Matier and Ross had some lurid crimes to report, including a girlfight at the Berkeley stop, and two San Francisco kids who took the BART out to Pleasanton to try breaking into cars in the parking lot.

....by which we refer of course to the weather. Phew! While we didn't break any records yesterday, it was sweltery enough that they declared it a Spare The Air day. BART ridership was up 26%, while the Oakland-Alameda ferries didn't remember to tell people until after the ship set sail that they weren't participating in the free fare program (too expensive for them).

We're a couple of bucks richer today, as today's Spare The Air day means free rides all day on Bay Area public transit. Fare boxes and gates will be deactivated, so just get on and take your free rides any time today. Sure, Muni will be hot and crowded as hell itself, but at least today we won't be paying for it.

We're never all that psyched to go to work, but it's a tiny bit more palatable when we don't have to pay to get there. That's why we'll be getting out of bed with an unusual spring in our step, as tomorrow marks 2005's first Spare The Air Day. According to this Chron piece, this means that almost all local transit providers (including BART and Muni) will offer free service from 4-9 a.m. Tuesday morning.