The Cupertino Courier
News
Carpool lane helps ease smog
By JASON GOLDMAN-HALL
For those who commute to jobs in Sunnyvale from Cupertino, a new city program can spare the air plus save them money on gas.
For example, for less than the price of one tank of gas for most cars, Daly City resident Fernando Bustos can ride trains and buses to his job at Juniper Networks for an entire month.
As part of the Sunnyvale company's efforts to curb car pollution, Butros is given $40 a month toward the $70 monthly Caltrain pass and an Ecopass that gives him free rides on any Valley Transit Authority line.
When he started six years ago, he said his primary concern wasn't the environment.
"I certainly care about the environment, but my main reason was I didn't want to sit in traffic," Bustos said.
And while he rides to work all year, alternative forms of transportation are in high demand during summer.
When the foothills go from emerald to brown in less than two weeks, the sky above the South Bay also changes, from rain-cleaned blue to a hazy shade of summer smog.
To combat the seasonal high levels of "ground-level ozone"--a corrosive gas formed when sunlight reacts with oxygen and chemicals released as byproducts by reactions such as those in combustion engines--the Bay Area Air Quality Management District designates June 1 through Oct. 13 as Spare the Air season.
On specific Spare the Air Days, the first of which were June 21 and 22, the district issues warnings and residents are encouraged to cut back on their use of lawnmowers, heavy machinery, cars and other polluters.
Sunnyvale has taken its own measures to cut pollution, especially in the Moffett Park area, where thousands of employees--many who live outside of Sunnyvale--come every day to work at such high-tech companies as Juniper Networks and Yahoo!
Because traffic has always been a concern in Moffett Park--with its high number of cars and relatively few outlet streets--the businesses set up the Moffett Park Business & Transportation Association.
Traffic in Moffett Park is not limited to the normal morning and evening rush hours.
"Most of the high-tech jobs in the area are not the typical 9-5 jobs; it spreads the traffic out so you always have people coming in and out of Moffett Park," said executive director Kerry Haywood.
Haywood said the association tries to promote various pollution-cutting and ride-sharing programs, including the July 19 Tour de Moffett Park bike race and continued use of 511.org, a site dedicated to Bay Area traffic issues.
"We're working hard to get the messages out to employers," she said.
According to Haywood, there are at least12,000 employees in Moffett Park: 7,500 at Lockheed-Martin; 3,000 at Yahoo! and 2,000 each at Juniper Networks and Network Appliances.
Last year, a survey of 4,600 employees showed 28 percent of them use some sort of alternative transportation at least once a week. Some, like Butros, use it every day.
Butros said in a typical month, he drives to work only a half dozen times.
For more information on traffic issues, visit www.511.org.
