Today marks the 11th annual National Dump the Pump day, a great opportunity to leave your car at home and walk, bike or take public transportation. This reminder comes at an especially critical time along the Wasatch Front, as hot summer temperatures combine with vehicle emissions and other pollutants to create valley smog.
We’d like to thank our riders who told us yesterday at Ogden Station why they “dump the pump” and ride UTA. Read on for some of the benefits that come with choosing sustainable modes of transportation.
- Mobile sources like automobiles and trucks make up 48 percent of Utah’s air pollution. (Envision Utah)
- If everyone who drives to work would take public transit one day per week, UTA could take 300,000 car trips off the road every day. (UTA)
- With UTA’s newer, cleaner bus technology, it only takes 1.26 passengers on a regular bus to offset the emissions of that bus. (UTA)
- Public transportation use reduces our nation’s dependence on foreign oil by 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline a year and it also saves 37 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually. (American Public Transportation Association (APTA))
- One person with a 20-mile round trip commute who switches from driving to public transit can reduce his or her daily carbon emissions by an average of 20 pounds, or more than 4,800 pounds in a year. (APTA)
- Without public transportation, national congestion costs in 2011 would have risen by nearly $21 billion. (APTA)