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Last week’s sizzling spring weather coincided with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s launch of its 2013 Spare the Air season. The focus of this year’s campaign is lone drivers, according to Aaron Richardson, district spokesman. People driving alone are the main sources of pollution, he said. Working together means rethinking your commute. Finding a better way to work by using transit, car or van pools, biking or walking are much better for the environment than driving a car

alone, officials say. The district cites recent census data that suggests that more than 37% of Bay Area employees commute alone to work each day, spending an average of 58 minutes on Bay Area roads. But there is good news. A recent air district survey indicated that drivers are more likely to seek out alternative commute methods if

encouraged to do so by their employers. Officials with the air district plan to roll out a new outreach campaign this summer that will encourage both employers and employees to seek out new ways to share, shorten or change their commutes to reduce driving alone, the district announced.

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  1. I can assure you the largest source of pollution in our area is the burning wood in stoves or fireplaces, not vehicle emissions. There are times when the wood smoke is just overwhelming. If people are serious about reducing pollution, they would require banning the open burning of wood and require wood to only be burned in closed stoves/fireplaces with catalytic converters. The dramatic reduction in pollution by such a restriction has already been proven in Denver.

  2. “I can assure you the largest source of pollution in our area is the burning wood in stoves or fireplaces, not vehicle emissions.” Which is a real concern this summer, right?
    In actuality, the biggest source of pollution is the hot air being emitted from politicians and the useful idiots that espouse their dominance and control over the populace who just want to live their lives free of unreasonable infringments.

  3. Smokey,

    Well put…!! Nobody is building fires on days with 90 degree temperatures and no wind. The smoke police probably generate more in vehicle emissions than all the fireplaces they can locate emitting smoke.

  4. I left a ridiculous comment under the name Arnold relating air pollution to excessive public sector pensions to illustrate that the above three comments were equally inane, but it was removed.

    ” The focus of this year’s campaign is lone drivers, according to Aaron Richardson, district spokesman. People driving alone are the main sources of pollution, he said.”

    This has nothing to do with wood burning stoves.

  5. Arnold,

    Evidently you cannot read. To-wit, the above article says “People driving alone are the main sources of pollution”. My posting challenged that statement, it was very relevant, and certainly not inane.
    Maybe you should lay off the smoking of the weed. That would reduce you own air pollution and it might do wonders for your mental clarity.

  6. What you truly don’t seem to realize is that the spare the air campaign is nothing but an attempt to deflect from the real problem which is unsustainable public worker salaries and pensions. If you look at Calpers and Calstrs, the evidence shows beyond any reasonable doubt that California is marching towards bankruptcy. If I’m not mistaken, Stockton was having spare the air days only shortly before it went bankrupt. It just all goes to show the level of desperation waged by those who stand to live a comfy life on excessive pensions at the expense of an increasingly strapped tax paying public. We are now standing on a sea shore and the rumble from the next tsunamic wave can be faintly heard out on the horizon.

    ps One of the best selling articles of clothing in Europe these days is Ron Paul tea shirts. All I can say is, I told you so.

  7. Hmmmmm, well if I could balance another person on my scooter, I would add another person on my vehicle…. and save the air 🙁 ~ So please excuse my smoke ~

    I think there are very few FREEdoms we have left these days and I want to be able to use my fireplace, that I PAID for and burn wood I BUY from stores that SELL it, when I feel chilled and want visual relaxation from my fireplace. Yes this FREEdom is normally used VERY few days in SUNNY California ~ Just my opinion of the off topic input ~

  8. This Spare the air campaign as well as many other campaigns for “the better future for our children” have very little to do with pollution, sustainability and children. The main purpose of all this is the gradual transformation of what used to be free American people to a flock of sheep which would dutifully follow their leader’s directions to everywhere including slaughterhouse. Step by step this government takes away peoples’ rights for a free will and step by step people are giving in on their freedoms for the sake of illusion of government’s supported comfort. So either Californians finally have to wake-up or to continue sleeping a happy sleep of happy California’s caws waiting..

  9. Please outreach to me, I can’t wait to stick all the wood I can no longer burn in your overloaded prius.

    I might drive to work by myself twice just watch you twitch.

  11. If you want to see pollution, just visit the Bay Bridge toll plaza after the metering lights are turned on. A thousand cars sitting there idling, while waiting their turn to move ten feet in line. If public transportation doesn’t get you anywhere close to where you have to go to work, you really don’t have much choice but to drive it alone. If you like how things are working in California, just keep voting the same old way and you’ll get the same old results.

    The yellow gunk that sits over San Francisco International Airport on a windless day, makes all the chimneys in Pleasanton look like “chump change” in the fight for clean air. So, this December when I’m “agonizing” whether to light my yule log, or not, I’ll be thinking of that line at the toll plaza, and that China Airlines jet spewing that yellow air that will probably beat me to Pleasanton while I wait my turn on 880 and then 580 to finally make it home.

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