Today is not only the day you can try out a bike rack or board a bus on a wheel chair, it’s also Clean Air Day! This year’s Clean Air Day is particularly note worthy for the Coast Mountain Bus Company.

They were just given the “Exceptional Performance/Outstanding Achievement” award at the CUTA (Canadian Urban Transit Association) conference in Regina for their Idle Free CMBC program! As you might have read in the June issue of the Buzzer, the CMBC fleet reduced the amount of bus idling every single month over the same month the previous year. They did this by asking drivers to turn off their buses if they expected to idle at a bus stop or loop for more than three minutes. As you can see from the chart, CMBC is still exceeding targets this year.

The CMBC program is part of an overall initiative by TransLink to “clear the air” and generally reduce harmful CO2 emissions. This also includes 180 hybrid buses added to the fleet;  operating the new, more fuel-efficient Sea Bus and redeploying 98 B -Line buses to suburban locations thereby increasing their fuel efficiency.

All of this has led to a reduction of 1.2 million litres of diesel used by its bus fleet and SeaBus in 2010 despite carrying more passengers and travelling further than in 2009. Reducing 1.2 million litres of diesel resulted in a reduction of about 4,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions or the equivalent of taking 1,000 cars off the road for a year.

You can go here for more specifics on the reduction of fuel use and costs at TransLink.