Residents of Greater San Antonio area (Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina, and Wilson Counties) reduced the number of vehicle trips taken on area roads by more than 1 million during 2014, according to the Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG), who sponsors NuRide, an online carpool matching, alternative transportation tracking, and reward system. The eliminated vehicle trips cited by AACOG were those of individuals who walked, cycled, took transit, carpooled/vanpooled, worked a compressed schedule, or telecommuted; and self-reported these trips through NuRide.com.
People who travel by means other than as single occupants in vehicles usually save money. If they record trips taken by alternative means or reduced through alternative work schedules on the AACOG-sponsored NuRide Website, Alamo area residents also get discounts and other rewards from over 100 participating businesses who appreciate these individuals’ actions to help improve our air. Because the nitrogen oxides found in vehicle emissions are a major contributor to ground-level ozone, the primary form of air pollution in the Alamo region, what citizens do to reduce fuel consumption helps to improve public health. For these reasons, AACOG refers to trips taken by alternative means or saved through alternative work schedules as “smart” trips.
As a result the smart trips that were tracked through the NuRide Website in 2014, 21,053,057 vehicle miles were reduced. That is the equivalent distance of 44 trips to the moon and back. About 1 million gallons of gas were saved by those trips. That is enough fuel to fill 113 9,000-gallon tanker trucks—to say nothing of how much fuel would have been used in driving those trucks to the Alamo area.
The fact that over 21 million vehicle miles were not traveled in the Greater San Antonio area and that 1 million gallons of fuel were therefore not consumed, means that over 33 tons of the compounds that form ground-level ozone were kept out of our air over the course of last year. In concentrations as low as 76 parts per billion in our air, prolonged exposure to ozone is considered by the Environmental Protection Agency as unhealthy for sensitive groups such as children, people with respiratory ailments, and those who work outdoors.
With the assistance of individuals who take and record smart trips on the NuRide Website, AACOG gathers data that will show progress toward the goal of regaining compliance with federal clean air standards. For this reason, AACOG asks that those who are carpooling, biking, riding the bus or taking other types of smart trips register and note those trips at NuRide.com. Thanks to such participating businesses as Dave & Buster’s, Five Star Cleaners, Mama Margie’s, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Linens-n-Things, and dozens more, area residents who record such trips will be rewarded for doing so. AACOG itself offers reimbursement for a taxi ride home from work in case of an emergency to area commuters who regularly record their trips on NuRide. In 2014, 13,319 discounts and other rewards were redeemed by those who recorded their trips on NuRide, with an estimated value of over $134,000.
More information about NuRide’s free carpool matching service, the reimbursed ride home from work in case of emergency, the state of the air in the Greater San Antonio area, fuel-saving tips, and other information may be found at cleanairdrive.com.
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Article written by Annette Prosterman -- If you would like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Annette Prosterman, AACOG’s Natural Resources Transportation Coordinator, please contact her at (210) 362-5213 or aprosterman@aacog.com.