Four years ago, in response to rising gas prices, transit agencies around the country celebrated National Dump the Pump Day. People who use public transportation save an average of $8000 annually on car expenses, and the amount keeps growing. Dump the Pump Day is a day for people to avoid the gas pump, get out of their cars and traffic, and try alternative forms of transportation like public transit and bicycling.
To highlight National Dump the Pump Day, Metro riders shared with us their stories about how they use Metro and why they dump the pump for public transit.
Go to Metro’s website to find more information on how you can Dump the Pump everyday.
I liked the video. But all the interviewees said they already use the metro every day. So they are not really doing anything different for dump the pump day. I think you could have found some people who didn’t normally use transit but would for the event.
That’s a good point, Amelie. We only interviewed people at MetroLink and bus stations, so we mostly got regular transit riders. It’s difficult to reach people who don’t normally use our system. We encountered a similar problem when we announced the Proposed Partial Service Restoration Plan. Many of the people who received brochures from us were regular Metro riders. We really needed to reach the people out in the community who have stopped using transit because their routes were cut. We’re working on innovative ways to communicate with our riders and other members of the community who could use our service.