People board public transportation 34 million times each weekday. On Thursday, the second annual national "Dump the Pump Day," the hope is to boost that tally with those willing to leave the car at home for a day.

National Dump The Pump Day is being observed in Honolulu as well, with a mayoral proclamation and the distribution of brochures and "I Dumped the Pump for Transit" buttons to pedestrians downtown. Teams are due to continue the handouts between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. today at Bishop and King streets.

Rising gas prices in recent months have fueled popular interest in such demonstrations. Some may feel this is a way to flex a little consumer muscle, a bit of salve for the payment pain.

That may be a normal reaction but, in fact, this is not a boycott. It's a public awareness campaign, which should be an ongoing drive on the environmental benefits and cost savings of transit, not just an annual event.

The statistics alone are pretty compelling (click the Dump the Pump logo at thebus.org). Honolulu city buses get more bang for the buck spent on fuel, but more than four out of five trips on O'ahu are still by private car.

Nationally, public transportation saves almost 4 million gallons of gasoline every day — the equivalent of 300,000 automobile fill-ups.

Given that Honolulu is investing billions of dollars in a planned fixed-guideway system, it would make sense to drive these points home, at every opportunity.

And the next opportunity could be during the school year. Whatever education money is available in the mass-transit planning budget would be well-spent on outreach to children on O'ahu campuses, where some really impressive strides have been taken in other public awareness campaigns.

Attitudes have been changed about the dangers of smoking and drug use, as well as the wisdom of wearing seat belts and recycling, and there have been no better ambassadors for spreading the good word than our children.

Some cities have offered special rates for children as part of their "Dump the Pump" strategy, and this might be a good idea for next year's event. Changing Hono-lulu's car culture to one that's more transit-friendly will be a long-term project, but one that's ultimately within the city's power.