FULLERTON : AQMD Has Commuter on the Run

Eric Newman leaves his house in the early morning gloom and dashes off to work.

The Fullerton fire captain doesn’t run out the door because he’s late. He’s earning a day off from work.

Newman earned an extra day off in December by taking the city up on its challenge to stop driving solo to work and to find an alternative means of getting there. About 180 other city workers also earned a day off or $120 in cash--whichever they chose--by cutting down the number of times they drove to work alone in a six-month period.

Since June, Newman, 35, has traded his Chevrolet Suburban for his Etonic Streetfighters running shoes on all but two morning commutes.

“It’s the only way to go,” said Newman, a Fullerton resident who runs about five miles to various city fire stations. “It’s doing my bit to help the environment.”

The South Coast Air Quality Management District requires all employers in the south coast air basin with 100 or more employees at one location to implement a program aimed at cutting the number of employees driving cars to work. Reduced automobile trips will mean reduced smog, said Claudia Keith, AQMD spokeswoman. About 7,500 businesses will be affected, she said.

The goal of AQMD’s program is to cut the miles driven by rush-hour commuters by 25%. If the program is successful, carbon monoxide pumped into the air will be reduced by 100 to 200 tons a day and ozone-producing gases by 25 to 60 tons a day, the AQMD predicts.

Fullerton, which began its trip-reduction program in June, uses the days off and the $120 in pay to encourage its workers to car-pool, airplane-pool, walk, bicycle, take a bus or even run to work. The money and vacation days will cost $50,000 to $76,000 a year, said Kenneth Bane, a city planner who helps administer the city program.

The city’s goal is to increase the average number of people in each car from the 1.08 it was in early 1989 to 1.5, he said.

Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine and Costa Mesa also have AQMD trip-reduction programs. Several other Orange County cities are preparing their plans.

In the past six months, Fullerton’s program has encouraged about 300 workers to use alternative commuting methods, about 200 of whom have stuck with it for most of that time, Bane said.

Newman has participated by running or bicycling to his 24-hour shifts.

The firefighter leaves home about 6:45 a.m. and usually runs along Orangethorpe Avenue, Lemon Street, Chapman Avenue, State College Boulevard and Commonwealth Avenue.

“I stick to the major streets to avoid the dogs,” he said. “You don’t have to run as fast that way.”

Firefighters have been some of the most faithful employees in the trip-reduction program, Bane said. At Station 1, where Newman is assigned, three bicycles hang from hooks in the shop room.

One of the bikes often hanging from the wall belongs to Battalion Chief John Clark, 46, who pedals 15 miles from Westminster.

“It’s a real good feeling of satisfaction, and I also feel I’m in much better shape than I was,” Clark said.

Before the city offered the day off from work, he would bicycle to work only occasionally. Now, he said, he cycles about 60% of the time.

Anaheim has achieved its goal of 1.5 for Civic Center employees, said Martine Micozzi, who manages the city’s one-year-old program. Anaheim encourages employees to reduce car trips by offering shorter work weeks, subsidized van pools, bicycle lockers and other incentives.

In Irvine, only about 50 employees are signed up for the program, said Bernadette Impellizeri, who recently was hired full time to run the city’s program.