As has become custom in recent years, Metro will be offering free bus, rail and bike share rides on Earth Day — Friday, April 22 — in recognition of public transit’s role in helping improve the environment. And, in particular, transit’s role in reducing greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

If you’re new to Metro or haven’t ridden in a while, use the Transit app for iPhones and Android phones to plan your trip. Our system (see the map) covers huge swaths of L.A. County with 119 bus lines, six rail lines and more than 200 bike share stations in downtown Los Angeles, central LA, Hollywood, North Hollywood and the Westside.

To redeem a free Metro Bike Share ride, select ‘1-Ride’ at any Metro Bike Share kiosk, online, or in the Metro Bike Share app and enter the promo code 042222. This code can be redeemed multiple times throughout the day.

Our friends at Metrolink are also offering free rides — meaning you can travel widely across L.A. County and our region using both Metro and Metrolink. From Metrolink:

Metrolink will provide free rides all day on all Metrolink trains, with no ticket required. Riders can board a Metrolink train at any station throughout the six-county area for transportation wherever Metrolink trains travel. Riders are also invited to visit Metrolink’s Earth Day webpage where they can make a #takethetrain pledge to be entered to win a Monthly Pass and try Metrolink’s Personal Impact Calculator to see how leaving the car behind makes a great ecological impact.

Purchase a new World Earth Day card, available at all Metro Customer Centers starting Friday, April 22. They are $2 each, plus the cost of fare. Available while supplies last — see the card at right..

As we have written many times over the years, taking transit instead of driving alone is a good way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. From National Geographic:

For short distances, walking or riding a bike is the obvious choice for low-to-no carbon emissions. Public transportation like buses, subways, and trolleys are almost always better than driving a car, because the more people traveling in a vehicle, the smaller the carbon footprint of each person.

Metro is working to make its entire bus fleet zero emission by 2030 — well ahead of the state target for transit agencies. The G (Orange) Line is already running only zero emission buses and the J (Silver) Line is next. Our trains run on electricity, meaning as the electrical grids that power So Cal increasingly use renewable sources of power, our rail system will only get even cleaner. 

In 2020, Metro’ contributed to the displacement or prevention of 742,229 metric tons of GHG emissions. That was about 19 percent lower than 2019 — due to the COVID-19 pandemic and safer-at-home orders. Still, that’s a net positive and we’ll prevent more greenhouse gases as ridership increases and our transit system expands.

See our sustainability page on metro.net for tons more info on Metro’s efforts to make our system and facilities as green as possible.

With each passing year, there is certainly more evidence that climate change is well underway and threatening lives, cities, agriculture, wildlife and ecosystems. From NASA:

The year 2021 tied with 2018 as the sixth warmest year on a record that extends back to 1880, according to NASA’s annual analysis of global average temperatures. The year contributed to an unprecedented, but well-understood trend in which the last eight years have been the warmest ever recorded.

NASA also offers these alarming stats:

As these charts from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show, transportation in the U.S. results in the most greenhouse gases — with most of that coming from burning of gasoline. Not exactly a shocker.