SAN FRANCISCO, March 8, 2016 — Shark Stewards, a nonprofit environmental leader in the local and global movement of conserving our oceans through the protection of sharks, today announced the nonprofit’s partnership with Time Lab, Inc., maker of Kid CarPool, a company dedicated to decreasing traffic and emissions by providing software solutions for kid transportation.
“Pollution from Bay Area traffic directly impacts marine life and the watershed of the sensitive and ecologically important San Francisco Bay. In the past century, the Bay has suffered greatly due to direct impacts, yet over time these are being addressed. Today the biggest daily threat to Bay health is run off from the land.” States, David McGuire, founder of nonprofit Shark Stewards. “Reducing emissions reduces impacts on the Bay and ocean, and means healthier air for our kids. By supporting Kid CarPool app, we hope to bring greater awareness of what is happening and encourage actions Bay Area residents can easily take today.”
Bay Area residents spent an average of 78 extra hours in traffic annually, wasting 19 gallons of fuel idling in traffic, experiencing 6 hours per weekday of congested roads and paying approximately $1,440 in annual traffic congestion tax1; making The San Francisco Bay Area the third-worst U.S. location for traffic.2
Over the past years, approximately 15,000 vehicles have been added to the streets due to ride services like Uber and Lyft.3 With the escalating decrease in school bus transportation for the 55,000 SF Unified School District students, from 44 to 25 buses in the past 2 years, combined with a predicted decline by 19 by end of 2016, congestion in the Bay Area will only continue to rise.4
The increased congestion not only costs commuters time, money and stress, but also severely impacts the health of our Bay Area air. Ranked among the nation’s worst by the American Lung Association, Bay Area air pollution contributes to hospitalizations, emergency room visits and deaths every year to our most vulnerable citizens.5
Additionally, climate change impacts the San Francisco Bay Delta Watershed through extreme weather, reduced snowpack, flooding, enduring drought and low water flows, endangered species habitat loss and rising sea levels in the San Francisco Bay and Delta.6 Oceans have absorbed nearly 30% of the carbon dioxide generated by human consumption of fossil fuels, making the oceans 30% more acidic and impacting the ocean’s food chains, which are at risk of collapse due to climate change, overfishing and localized pollution.7
In addition to the health and environmental benefits, reducing the current number of vehicles in the Bay area by 1% will decrease time in traffic for drivers by 14% or ~8 minutes per hour.8
“Kid CarPool is an easy time saving solution to reducing pollution; saving valuable time, decreasing traffic and associated costs, and helping protect our SF Bay environment.” says Patton, founder of Time Lab, “We could not be more excited to partner with Shark Stewards to help raise awareness and increase educational outreach on such important, local issues.”
Patton and McGuire believe with education and software, the Bay Area can experience reduction in the number of vehicles on the roads during peak driving times and improvements in SF Bay ecological health.
About Shark Stewards
Shark Stewards is at the forefront of the local and global movement to save sharks, ban the shark fin trade, stop illegal shark finning and establish shark sanctuaries. They lead efforts to educate and establish marine protected areas and ban the shark fin trade in North America, and are expanding across the Pacific into Asia with a Pacific Shark Alliance. Shark Stewards is a project of The Earth Island Institute, an environmentalist think tank and is a 501c3 non-profit. Shark Stewards is dedicated to conserving our oceans through the protection of sharks. For more information, please visit www.sharkstewards.org or follow on Twitter @SHARKSTEWARDS.
About Time Lab, Inc.
Time Lab, Inc. is focused on solving the pain points around kid transportation. The Kid CarPool app, available on iOS and Android, was inspired by the founders’ childhood experience, watching her mom drive for hours each week, only to discover at the end of the school year that a neighbor had been driving their kids to the same location at the same time. Kid CarPool’s mission is to decrease traffic and make life easier and greener for both schools and parents, by creating a parent-helping-parent carpool network. It’s an easy, fun and safe alternative, saves parents valuable time and money, reduces stress and creates a new, supportive community for parents everywhere. For more information, please visit www.kidcarpool.com. Follow Kid CarPool on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/kidcarpool/ #DriveLessPlayMore
1Source: Key Findings: Urban Mobility Scorecard Annual Report 2014
2Source: Urban Mobility Scorecard Annual Report 2014
3Source: S.F. traffic: Numbers don’t show why it really is bad 2016
4Source: SFUSD 2016
5Source: Report: Bay Area Air Quality Ranked Among Nation’s Worst 2015
6Source: New study warns of dangerous climate change risks to the Earth’s oceans 2015
7Source: What are the Challenges? 2015
8Source: Key source of Bay Area traffic headaches revealed by top researchers 2013
Media contacts: David McGuire, [email protected]; Danielle Patton, [email protected]