GBTA handing out 3,000 all-day passes

The passes will be good all day on Earth Day, which is Tuesday, April 22. The passes, called "Go — Then Grow!," are infused with wildflower-infused seed paper.

"After you're done with it, you can plant the pass in the soil, water it, and you should get wildflowers," said Doug Holcomb, the bus authority's planning and service development officer.

The purpose of the promotion is to draw attention to the fact that taking the bus is a greener alternative to driving your car — especially when it comes to reducing your carbon footprint.

"A single person commuting alone by car, who switches a 20-mile commute to existing public transportation, can reduce his or her annual CO2 emissions by 4,800 pounds per," said to Ron Kilcoyne, the GBTA's CEO. "That's equal to a 10 percent reduction in all greenhouse gasses produced by a typical two-adult, two-car household."

Beginning today and continuing through April 21, the passes will be given away at the Discovery Museum, 4450 Park Ave.; the Barnum Museum, 820 Main St.; the Connecticut Resource Recovery Authority's Garbage Museum, 1410 Honeyspot Road Extension, Stratford; and Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo, in Bridgeport's Beardsley Park.

Also, the zoo will be handing out the passes during its Earth Day "Party for the Planet" festivities, which will take place April 19 and 20. Holcomb said that the GBTA

For more information, visit the GBTA's Web site, www.gbtabus.com.