Thursday, October 18, 2012

Find your fun amid fall's foliage

  What better way to savor the splendor of the season in the greater New York metropolitan area than to walk or to ride a bike? These experiences offer a bounty of benefits: visual delights, terrific exercise, camaraderie among friends and family and, best of all, fewer motor vehicles generating emissions. Seize the moments now before winter curbs your enthusiasm for some outdoor activities.    
  
   There are abundant opportunities for leaf-peeping adventures in the region. While you are admiring the reds and golds on display, remember that all those falling leaves can be put to good use in gardens and on lawns because they are useful high-carbon materials. Mix the leaves with grass clippings in your compost pile and you’ll be grateful when spring planting season arrives. Shredded leaves also can be effective mulch for soil, adding nutrients and helping it retain moisture. Burning leaves, which is banned in many communities, is never good for air quality; leaf smoke may contain noxious chemicals such as benzo(a)pyrene, suspected as a major factor in lung cancer. Carbon monoxide in leaf smoke also can bind with hemoglobin in the blood. 
  
   To get going on your journeys, check out these choices for the bicyclist and pedestrian: 

In New York City:
In the Lower Hudson Valley:

In Long Island:
  Wherever you wander, we at Clean Air NY encourage you to explore www.511ny.org, the free traffic, travel and transit information source provided by the New York State Department of Transportation to help you know what you need before you go.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Get in the Game with Smart Travel Choices

  Sports fans love autumn in New York. In the greater metropolitan area, enjoy even more excitement with the upcoming debut of the Brooklyn Nets. The basketball team’s owners report that 10,000 season tickets already have been sold for its new Barclays Center at 620 Atlantic Ave. Smart sports fans also are Clean Air NY fans and know the best ways to see all the action in every venue is via mass transit.

  In keeping with this spirit, a new subway entry at Barclays debuted on Sept. 17. This center connects nine subway lines, 11 bus lines and the Long Island Rail Road so that the need to drive to the new arena is eliminated. Check out

  Want to see the rival Knicks? You have easy transit and travel options to get to Madison Square Garden.
  If you’re always ready for some football, travel to the Giants and Jets home games at the MetLife Stadium with this helpful guidance: New Meadowlands Stadium.

  Even as the baseball season winds down, diamond devotees know the best ways to see the Yankees and Mets swinging their bats at their home parks is to check out New Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, respectively.   

  Explore the free traffic, transit and travel information source, www.511NY.org, to learn more about what you need to know before you go. The site is provided by the New York State Department of Transportation, which sponsors Clean Air NY.   

Combine several travel options, such as carpool, transit and walking, to all your sporting events and you'll score a win for cleaner air.