Spare the Air is administered by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), is paid mostly by the federal program called "Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality" (CMAQ) and partially by the local "Transportation Fund for Clean Air" (TFCA). CMAQ is funded mostly by federal gas taxes; TFCA is funded mostly by a $4 surcharge on motor vehicle registration. CMAQ across the country is the most popular source of funds for bicycle and pedestrian improvement projects. The BAAQMD decided at the beginning of the air pollution season to pay for free transit on bad air days, and was surprised when they all came at once. We had more bad air days than predicted, so the increased funding for the program. I don't like the program, myself. They spent $10 million on free transit: that would build a lot of bike paths! Dave At 5:40 PM -0700 10/8/06, christine mcclintock wrote:

Hi, All...

I was just reading over my state voters' guide and see that there are a lot of transpo-themed props. I was noticing, though that none of them seem to mention the "Spare the Air" program. Does anyone know where that money actually comes from? I thought that it was from the gas tax, but it doesn't look like it is.

Also - I was wondering if anyone had any insight on why the three Spare the Air days were used all in a row this year. That seemed really odd to me, and that there might have been some behind closed door politicking going on around that. If you have any juicy bits on this, please let me know - I'm curious!

Thanks! Christine _______________________________________________ Transpo mailing list Transpo@sfgreens.org https://list.sfgreens.org/mailman/listinfo/transpo