The web site CleanAirNY.org has an email list worth subscribing to. Sponsored by the NY Dept of Transportation, the alerts tell you whenever NY is at risk of smog. You’ll get an email the day before saying, “Hey tomorrow is a clean air day!” with advice on what to do: drive less etc.
It is common sense advice but what is cool is that they are keeping you updated on the air quality of NY, which changes daily.
It is nice to know when the city is especially smoggy since you may be able to plan around it, or AWAY from it….
As a NY green contractor we try to reduce our footprint by bicycling as much as possible. We have a diesel pick up that has been converted to run on vegetable oil from a local doughnut shop but whenever we can we use our bikes and foot scooters for small runs to the hardware store.