Keeping the Air We Breathe Cleaner
Thursday, April 12, 2007 5:10 PM
Just how clean is the air we breathe in Houston?
Today our air was rated code green or "good," as measured by the Air Quality Index, a rating system by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that measures five major pollutants and assigns a color code so we can easily understand how healthy the air is.
Green means "good" - no health impacts. Code purple is "very unhealthy" - active children and adults or people with respiratory disease should avoid all outdoor exertion.
Check out weather.com for an easy and fun way to see how polluted Houston is - or any city. Click here for a government-backed site for kids that introduces Buster Butterfly, who tells kids when it's safe to play outside. 
Here at METRO, we're doing two things to help keep our air cleaner: We're adding new hybrid buses, and we're promoting our more traditional vanpools.
We'll be exhibiting our European-style hybrid bus and our vanpool at the fourth annual Fresh Air Friday: A Picnic in the Park. The event will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. tomorrow at Hermann Square Park, 901 Bagby between City Hall.
Presented by the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC), Fresh Air Friday will feature food and beverages from downtown restaurants and music by The Zydeco Dots. Vendors who will promote the use of alternative fuels and clean-engine technology.
"Houston is a great place to be in the spring, and all of us can keep it great by doing some simple things to help clean the air," said Jack Steele, executive director of H-GAC. "Obviously, one way to keep it clean is to avoid single occupancy vehicle trips by riding METRO, by vanpooling or by carpooling."
Other simple things we can do: Fill your gas tank in the evenings rather than mornings; otherwise, emissions escape, "cook" in the air and contribute to ozone. Make sure your tire pressure is correct. If it's too low, it causes more friction and uses more gas, said Steele.
At METRO, as of April 12, we have 15 new hybrid buses on the roads, joining the four retrofitted hybrid buses we've had since 2003. By the end of May, we will have a total of 30 in local service.
A chief engineer of GM Allison, which makes the hybrid components which are the "heart" of the bus, will be on be on hand to answer questions, along with METRO's Andrew Skabowski, director of maintenance support functions.
The buses are New Flyer 41-foot coaches that seat 39 passengers. Fuel economy should improve by more than 30 percent; nitrogen oxide emissions should be reduced up to 50 percent - and a feature all passengers will appreciate - the noise level will be similar to a passenger car.
Our hybrid bus will be on display on Walker between Bagby and Smith. A video will be playing continuously explaining how hybrids work.
We'll also have a METRO van on display - you can climb in and see what it feels like to relax and leave the driving to someone else. METRO has more than 1,500 companies who have at least one employee who participates in a vanpool.
Forty-seven companies offer a vanpool benefit, and METRO has 6,700 riders in the miniPOOL and METROvan program.
"Vanpooling contributes to cleaning up the air by reducing vehicle miles and emissions," said Beverly Elam Homer, manager of RideShare & Sales at METRO. "For example, METRO's regional vanpool program has reduced vehicles miles by 49,125,141 miles during the last contract period of May 1, 2006, to April 30, 2007."