H-GAC announces 'Free Fare Fridays' for transit in the Greater Houston area

HOUSTON, Texas -- The Houston-Galveston Area Council announced in a Sept. 3 news release a new campaign focusing on reducing air pollution levels will provide free use of certain mass transit routes on Fridays in September.

The video above is from ABC13's 24/7 livestream.

What you need to know

As part of the partnership with H-GAC, multiple transit agencies across the Houston region will allow riders to use mass transit routes free of charge on Fridays in September. According to the release, the initiative aims to reduce the amount of air pollution generated from vehicles on Houston area roadways. The participating agencies include:

• Harris County Transit: All routes

• Fort Bend Transit: All routes

• City of Conroe: Fixed and paratransit routes

• The Woodlands Township: all routes

"For more than 50 days in 2023, we exceeded ground-level ozone standards in our eight-county region, according to data analyzed by our air quality team," Jamila Owens, assistant director of transportation at H-GAC, said in the release. "One way to reduce the harmful effects of ground-level ozone during this month of historically poor air quality is to be part of the solution by shifting travel towards options like transit, carpool, or vanpool."

What else?

If residents are not able to use the transit options, H-GAC officials also urged other measures to reduce air pollution including:

• Taking a carpool or vanpool

• Teleworking

• Turning the car off when stationary to reduce emissions

• Ensuring tires are properly inflated

• Filling the gas tank later in the day to minimize emissions

• Planning errands to reduce the number of trips