City offers free nitrogen inflation for residents

June 14, 2010

Old-fashioned air is out and nitrogen is in among residents of St. Peters, Mo., who are lining up to have free nitrogen pumped into their tires thanks to a new city program.

St. Peters, a St. Louis, Mo., suburb with a population of around 55,000, set up a nitrogen tire inflation station last month. All residents have to do is call ahead to schedule an appointment and then bring their vehicles into the station at the agreed-upon time. Twenty minutes later, they drive away with nitrogen in all four tires.

The program stemmed from a block grant that the city received from the U.S. Department of Energy for the development and implementation of projects to reduce energy consumption, Lisa Bedian, St. Peters' director of communications, told www.moderntiredealer.com.

"We applied for a grant from the Department of Energy as part of (the federal government's stimulus package)," she said. "Part of what we had to apply for involved funding that would impact our residents.

"We have a 'green committee' made up of residents who said, ‘Let’s do something we can see a positive impact from immediately.' They came up with the nitrogen tire inflation station."

The program has been well-received from the start. "We've gotten great feedback. When the program was announced, we were not going to take appointments until two or three weeks later. People started calling that day, they were so excited about nitrogen.

"We also have had some great local press coverage. We had TV stations in St. Louis talking about this, it was discussed on talk radio… there are still some things people need to understand about nitrogen, so there has been an education process. But once our residents found out this was available, they were very enthusiastic.”

The city now has a nitrogen inflation waiting list, she added.

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