COTA Participating in Dump the Pump Day

COTA.com wrote COTA Participating in Dump the Pump Day

With high gasoline prices on the minds of central Ohioans, the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) announced today that it will join with other public transportation systems nationwide in observance of the third annual National Dump the Pump Day on Thursday, June 19. Sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), National Dump the Pump Day is a day designated to encourage people to ride public transportation to save money, conserve gasoline, and help reduce greenhouse gases.

Each year, APTA reports, Americans save 1.4 billion gallons of gasoline by choosing public transportation. Through public transportation use, there are 300,000 fewer automobile fill-ups each day and 108 million fewer fill-ups annually. According to APTA, households that use public transportation save an average of $1,399 worth of gasoline each year. Transit availability can reduce the need for an additional car, which amounts to an annual expense of $6,251 in a household budget. Public transportation reduces the nation’s carbon emissions by 37 million metric tons annually, which is equivalent to the electricity used by 4.9 million households.

COTA representatives will be at the intersection of Broad and High streets on the morning of June 19 to provide these and other statistics about the benefits of using public transportation. Also in observance of Dump the Pump Day, COTA is introducing a new feature, “The Cost of Driving to Work,” to its website, www.cota.com, which provides information on how driving to work impacts the household budget. The feature also provides the potential cost savings by riding COTA.

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