Triad Air Awareness is offering incentives to ride the bus this summer:
Problems with air quality in the Piedmont Triad are at their worst during the summer, largely because of hot and sunny weather that turns car exhaust into ground level ozone.
That’s when the region also has its highest rate of commuting motorists and when the most seats go unused on public transportation.
Voila, the Triad Commute Challenge, offers prizes to you, the motorist, for becoming you, the bus rider, or you, the bike-to-work guy, or you, the carpool gal, etc.
Here’s the kicker: To be eligible for such prizes as a dinner for two or a weed trimmer, you only have to pledge to use the alternative for a minimum of one day.
OK, I understand the heat and the sunshine contributing to ozone in the summer, but I don’t understand why commuting patterns would be any heavier during the summer than they would any other time of year. With more people out of town for (in many cases extended) vacation, it would seem like commuting patterns would improve. In fact, cities just plain empty out, according to this Journal editorial on oil exploration off the Virginia coast:
If oil and natural gas are found, then that would almost certainly bring more industrial development on the shoreline, something we do not need. The American Atlantic coast is already too heavily populated, especially when the cities empty and residents vacation on the coast.
I’m not criticizing, I’m just wondering.
