a009  2201  28 Oct 74
Carless Day Bjt 410
By GREGORY A. GROSS
Associated Press Writer
    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Employers throughout the city start asking San
Francisco's 500,000 commuters today to give up their cars one day
each week.
    The object: Save fuel by breaking the car-commuting habit.
    Thirteen major corporations already have agreed to urge all their
employes - from top executives down to clerks - to use public transit
instead of private autos once a week.
    Mayor Joseph L. Alioto, who announced the carless-day plan Monday,
urged employers to ask their workers to go along with the program he
said could cut fuel usage 20 per cent and reduce the dependence on
Arab oil.
    ''The only realistic way to beat the sheiks is to get out of our
automobiles,'' Alioto said.
    San Francisco's streets are fed by only three commute arteries -
the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay Bridge and highway links to
the San Francisco Peninsula on the south. Available mass transit
includes the Bay Area Rapid Transit System, buses and trains.
    The motto of Alioto's plan is ''Once a week to WIN (Whip Inflation
Now).'' Its prime target is the suburban commuter.
    Monday would be carless for employes of banks, stock brokerages and
other financial institutions; Tuesday for the corporations; Wednesday
for employes in city, state and federal government; Thursday for the
city's two major utilities, Pacific Telephone and Pacific Gas and
Electric Co.; and Friday for anyone not already covered.
    The Bank of America, the world's largest commercial bank and
employer of 3,780 people here, will ask its work force to use public
transit and request its bank executives to rearrange their Monday
schedules so that they won't need their cars, said Larry Zugnoni,
vice-president of employe services.
    Other major corporations already pledged to cooperate include
Transamerica, Southern Pacific, Del Monte, Hilton Hotels, Crown
Zellerbach, Consolidated Freightways and Bechtel.
    The rotating no-car days would be coordinated with a program of
staggered work hours in certain businesses to stretch out the peak
commute periods and avoid overloading public transportation.
    The plan was prompted by President Ford's request to major cities
to do something to cut auto usage and save fuel.
    Sylvia Porter, chairman of the President's Citizen's Action
Committee to fight inflation, praised Alioto for the move.
    ''The people of San Frncisco have a unique opportunity to show the
way to other cities across the nation,'' she said in a wire to him.
    
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