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Friday, May. 01, 2009

Carpools are road to cleaner air

Tim Kickham of Macon says he would never have started carpooling if the state hadn’t started paying him to do it.

But that $3-a-day reward motivated him to team up with a co-worker at Armstrong World Industries who lives in Kickham’s north Macon neighborhood.

Kickham logged his carpooling trips online and received a check after reaching the $100 limit, which took about three months. But he has kept carpooling, although less frequently, in hopes of winning a free gas card.

This commuter rewards program, offered through an Atlanta-based nonprofit, was only officially extended statewide this spring to try to reduce air pollution from cars.

Vehicle exhaust produces pollutants that contribute to ground-level ozone — the primary component of smog — as well as fine particle pollution that penetrates deep into the lungs. Both can cause heart and breathing problems.

Today is the first day of ozone season, when smog levels and their dangerous health effects increase. Scientists are resuming their daily smog forecasts for Macon, which residents can receive by e-mail. About 750 people are signed up to receive smog notifications either daily or when smog reaches dangerous levels, said Charise Stephens with the Middle Georgia Clean Air Coalition.

An annual ban on outdoor burning also begins today in most of Middle Georgia, lasting until the end of ozone season Sept. 30.

Bibb County and a portion of Monroe County fail to meet federal standards for both ozone and fine particle pollution. The area has until the end of this year to attain safe levels of fine particle pollution or face tougher rules.

The state Environmental Protection Division recently recommended that the area also be placed in a nonattainment zone for ozone pollution, since federal ozone standards tightened last spring. That led to five violations at one Macon air monitor and three at a Lake Tobesofkee monitor last year, said Susan Zimmer-Dauphinee, EPD ambient program manager.

Despite continuing to lag behind national standards, Georgia’s air pollution has been less severe, said Michael Chang, a Georgia Tech researcher who models air pollution.

“It’s been 10 years since the worst year in Georgia air quality,” he said. “Back in 1999 we thought this problem was insurmountable. ... This should give us some hope. We’re better than halfway there.”

ENCOURAGING GREEN COMMUTES

Drivers can help increase that progress. The Clean Air Campaign runs the commuter rewards programs now being offered statewide. Besides paying commuters who make the switch to carpooling, biking, public transportation or working from home, the program provides monthly gas cards worth $40 to three-person car pools and $60 to car pools of four or more.

The nonprofit agency also has a ride-share database to help residents find someone to carpool with, and it is working to add more names outside Atlanta, said Brian Carr, the Clean Air Campaign’s director of communications.

Sarah Waters with Cookerly Public Relations, a company hired by the Clean Air Campaign, said 322 people who live in Bibb or Houston counties have already registered to join. The campaign calculates that these commuters have reduced more than a million pounds of pollution from the air and saved more than $515,000 on their commutes, mostly through carpooling.

Individuals and businesses can join the program. Tim Kickham got involved on his own this past fall when he heard about it from a co-worker who commutes from Locust Grove to Macon.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Kickham said. “From a traffic standpoint, I like it. It would be even better for places that do shift work.”

Only a few midstate employers are participating. Robins Air Force Base was the first.

“This (program) especially helps the people in outlying counties who have to travel long distances to work, and helps with air pollution and traffic on the base,” said Heidi Schwingle, the Robins air quality program manager.

In March, Robins employees logged 92 clean commutes, mostly by carpool, she said.

The Clean Air Campaign plans another participation drive at the base this month, Schwingle said.

Cox Communications just joined, and 14 employees signed up March 24, said Mary Bowman Huff, the community and public relations manager for the company in Macon.

“We’re going to host a surprise patrol in the parking lot and give prizes to people who we catch carpooling to work,” she said.

She said the company joined because of its Cox Conserves mission, which is to reduce the company’s greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2017.

Companies that join basically provide the Clean Air Campaign an opportunity to educate and enroll their employees. Employers can encourage participation by providing preferential parking for car pools and similar perks.

The Clean Air Campaign has added local coordinators in Augusta and Columbus, but it is still interviewing candidates to handle Macon, Carr said. The coordinators will work with metropolitan planning organizations, chambers of commerce and public health officials to drive participation, he said.

Although the Clean Air Campaign is applying Atlanta-based solutions to the whole state, Carr acknowledged that employment patterns and pollution sources vary in different Georgia cities.

For example, in Atlanta half of air-pollution emissions come from cars and trucks, while in Macon they account for about a quarter of air pollution, he said.

Stephens, with the Middle Georgia Clean Air Coalition, noted that working from home may be less viable in Macon than in Atlanta.

“We have customer service and distribution jobs here, and teleworking just won’t work with those,” she noted.

But Stephens said carpooling and other options will.

When she surveyed 20 local employers several years ago, Stephens learned most of them were interested in commuter programs, but they wanted to wait until the Clean Air Campaign started offering incentives.

Employers and employees who participate may also be eligible for some federal tax credits and payroll tax subsidies, and Georgia offers a tax credit to employers that allow employees to work from home, Stephens and Carr said.

To contact writer S. Heather Duncan, call 744-4225.