National Group Says 'Dump the Pump'
As gas prices increase, public transportation systems seeing increases in ridership.
A national organization is asking communities to "dump the pump" Thursday and use whatever public transportation is available. More than 100 transit systems are joining the American Public Transportation Association's sixth annual Dump the Pump Day, APTA spokeswoman Virginia Miller said. The first Dump the Pump Day was in June 2006, after gas prices hit more than $3, she said. "The great thing about this initiative is that while gas prices went down (after 2006), ridership didn't, as if people had changed," Miller said. The national average for unleaded gasoline has steadily decreased from $3.961 on May 15, to $3.6893 June 15, according to the AAA Mid-Atlantic Public & Government Affairs. While gas prices have decreased, they are still $1.…
Daniel Simon
7:33 pm on Sunday, June 26, 2011
I think that public transportation is still a very European-esque, cultural thing. In US, the media and corporate energy interests spend so much time promoting car use and anti-Euro sentiment that it will be tough to get us to become comfortable using public transportation. Public transportation use would mean that we would have to share, be efficient and lose some of our individualism. These are… more ›