This coming Thursday is national “Dump the Pump Day,” a day when drivers are encouraged to use public transportation instead of their own vehicles to save money and fuel. Some of those folks will be running on biodiesel, as many communities use the green fuel to run their buses.

One such community is Springfield, Missouri, which runs 1.2 million miles of bus routes a year on biodiesel. And this story from the Springfield News-Leader says the city’s utilities Transit Service will give free rides on its buses on Thursday:

“By participating in the national ‘Dump the Pump Day,’ we hope people who have never used our services will give us a try instead of driving their car,” CU Transit Director Carol Cruise said. “We will welcome new riders and thank our regular riders.”

Public transportation is seeing an increased number of riders across the country. In 2007, CU Transit Services provided 2 million rides. CU’s biodiesel fueled buses drove 1.2 million miles and operated over 85,000 hours to provide transportation services to the Springfield community.