A Spare the Air Day has been called for Friday. It is the third such alert in the San Francisco Bay Area for the summer season.
“A brief spike in temperatures tomorrow is expected to contribute to unhealthy air quality in the Bay Area,” Jack Broadbent, executive officer of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, said Thursday.
“Unhealthy air quality can be avoided if we reduce our driving by taking public transit, carpooling, biking or walking to work.”
Automobile exhaust is the single largest source of air pollution in the Bay Area, according to Kristine Roselius of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. "There are usually between 3 million and 4 million cars per day on Bay Area roads," she said. "There are 5.2 million cars registered in the nine-county Bay Area region."
Hot temperatures and light winds will combine to produce poor air quality for the Bay Area today. To help prevent smog, consider the following:
• Carpool or combine necessary trips and postpone errands, if possible.
• Take public transportation.
• Don't use charcoal when barbecuing; consider a gas grill instead.
"We always encourage people to use alternative modes of transportation," said Roselius. "We definitely recommend bicycling. It's one of the features on the new iPhone app, a bike route mapper."
To plan your commute by alternative modes, visit 511.org.
Visit the Apple App Store to download the free Spare the Air iPhone application for alert notifications, local air quality forecasts, podcasts and several tools to help reduce air pollution like the aforementioned bike route mapper.
To monitor current air quality conditions, visitsparetheair.org.
