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SALT LAKE CITY — Officials from Utah Transit Authority say they’ll be giving riders a bit of a break, and they’ll try to help clear the air while doing it.
Organizers of UTA’s RideClear program hope to convince people to leave their cars at home during bad air days. So, they’re giving away thousands of passes.
“We are able to give out 5,000 free passes between Feb.17 and March 31. They’ll be good during that time,” explained UTA spokesman Remi Barron.
UTA handed out many free passes in the summer, Barron said, and that program was extremely successful. But the Utah Clean Air Partnership is giving UTA the funding needed to hand them out again.
“They’ll have seven consecutive days, which we hope will do something to help clear the air,” Barron said.
Riders can activate the passes any time during those dates, but Barron hopes participants will be wise about the timing.
“We hope people will pay attention to when the air isn’t very good, and they’ll use these passes at that time," he said.
UTA will not issue all 5,000 passes at once. Barron said they will be given out in batches of 1,000 or 2,000. The passes are good on TRAX, FrontRunner and UTA buses.
