Gas is expensive. In other news, water is wet…

Seriously though, gas is expensive. Californians are buying less of it, but many of us still need a car to get around sometimes, and use BART and public transportation when we can.

If this describes you (drives sometimes, BARTs sometimes), we’ve got a photo contest for you! Hurry though – the deadline to enter is Monday, July 11.

From BART:

To enter this contest, upload a photo of yourself at the gas station, and either a painfully high price-per-gallon or an infuriating fill-up total. To qualify, your photo submission MUST be a photo of you (preferrably showing us how you really feel about those gas prices), and MUST clearly identify a gas pump or gas station surrounding. Three winners will be selected at random to receive $500, $250 or $100 in BART tickets, respectively.

Click here to post your picture online!

BART graciously designed the application so you can browse the other submission. Here are some of our favorites, but they’re really worth checking out. Who knew expensive gas brought out a sense of humor in people?

I call this one “Tiny, angry Hulk in a gray, gray world.”

She looks like she wants to hulk out and rearrange the numbers. Which would be awesome. With those numbers she could bring it down to… $0.33?

This one most closely resembles how I feel about buying gas. I just want it to be over with. I never plan for it, which is why I get down to a quarter of a tank so many times by surprise. Then I have to buy gas in a hurry, and find out it’s more expensive than the last time I checked!

Argh!

 
The best part of this one (other than how it reminds me of my dad) is that the advertisement at the pump glorifies driving for driving’s sake. Sure, motorcycles are fun, and many are much more fuel efficient than cars. But shouldn’t we start thinking about some cheaper hobbies?

That open road was a lot more inviting when gas wasn’t $4 a gallon, wasn’t it?

Here is the original Bay Area Rapid Transit logo from 1958:

Current Bay Area Rapid Transit logo:

Hat tip: Streetsblog SF | Photo credit: Eric Fischer

Related: San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District General Map from February 9, 1961

Here’s what we’ve been tweeting about lately:

Suggestions of other maps you would like to see here  can be posted here in the comments.

iSmog displays air quality information for the San Francisco Bay Area. With just a tap of the screen, users will see an easy-to-understand map of environmental quality in the Bay Area’s five air basins, built using data provided by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD). With this information, commuters can make more informed choices about environmentally friendly transportation options, and members of sensitive groups will be better able to stay abreast of information that can be, literally, life-or-death.

Push notification alerts users with allergies or other environmental sensitivities when the air contains unhealthy levels of contaminants including ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and two sizes of particulate matter, all precursors of ozone. Notifications can be customized by level of sensitivity and by geographic area.

Read more about iSmog here: http://www.511contracosta.org/ismog/

“The last version was more detailed; like the new BART map, it listed destinations that couldn’t be fit on the map. But we’d like to think that this version combines the simplicity of the BART map with a relatively accurate rendering of geography, and it includes some detail that the BART map doesn’t, like major Muni stops.”

Read more at the San Francisco Cityscape website and check out the map  here.

“What’s the most efficient way to get around? Planes might burn a lot of fuel, but they also are filled with people, making each gallon go a lot farther. How does that stack up against trains, buses, cars, or the gasoline equivalent of eating a burger and hopping on your bike? The answer may surprise you.”

You can read more on good.is.

We are two months in to our $25 Peet’s Coffee & Tea gift card giveaway promotion.  Winning is easy.  Just be a new Twitter follower of @511CC or retweet us to be entered into our monthly drawing.

Not only will following us on Twitter give you the chance to win free coffee, but you will receive handy updates from us on important Contra Costa County traffic information, Spare the Air days and info about our numerous cool promotions like free BART passes to baseball games, carpooling incentives and more.

Our June and July winners were Norma (@normallyp) and Jerry (@DearJellyHiJely).  Both of whom are probably enjoying some delicious Peet’s coffee right now on us.

We’ll be giving away the next gift card at the end of August so there is still plenty of time to get in the runnings!

Follow 511 Contra Costa on Twitter: http://twitter.com/511cc

What is Twitter?   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

I’m happy to announce our new monthly Twitter for a Peet’s gift card giveaway.

On the last Monday of each month we will be giving away a $25 Peet’s gift card to either a new Twitter follower from the current month, or a random user who has re-tweeted one of our tweets. We’ll be giving out the first gift card Monday the 29^th so get tweeting!

You can only win as a new follower once, but you can re-tweet us as often as you want and qualify each time.

Follow 511 Contra Costa on Twitter: http://twitter.com/511cc

What is Twitter?   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

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