Yesterday marked the last the day of the 2008 Bike Commute Challenge, the annual competition in which workplaces compete to see who can bike to work the most. Individuals still have until Friday at 5pm to log their September trips, so we won’t have final results to announce until next week.
However, we do want to congratulate the more than 1100 teams and more than 12,000 individuals who participated this year. Some of these riders are year-round bike commuters who served as team captains organizing their workplace’s participation, mentoring new riders, providing encouragement, and creating internal incentives for bike commuters. Other riders were first-time bike commuters willing to try something new. We hope many of them had fun and discovered a new transportation option they will continue to consider.
And we thank everyone who has shared their stories with us. Keep them coming!
Ms. Oakley Taylor from the City of Bend wrote,
“For the month of September, I logged in 166 miles on my bike just traveling to work. I am twenty years older now than when I first started commuting to work by bike when I first moved to Bend and am putting more miles on my bike daily than I ever have before. My commute in the morning is under starry nights when most of the town lies sleeping and the traffic is very light. The jacket I wear is so reflective that I believe it can be seen from a mile away.
I ride from the outskirts of the city limits and enjoy the early morning commute more than the afternoon when cars approach the multitude of access points. I have filled up my car two times this summer and have developed cobwebs on the steering wheel. I will try to ride till the end of October and then see how it goes. But I am happy to contribute less to my “carbon footprint” and physically I am feeling so good. When I get home from work, my workout is done for the day and I can sit on the couch and feel good about my day.”
Ahh, there are so many things to love about biking! Happy Riding!
Hi!
My little team of cyclists had a good time riding during September, but now I have not figured out how to pull up last month’s team statistics. All the totals are for Oct including when I export stats. I’m sure it’s not difficult, I just haven’t found it yet.
Thanks,
Toby
This was the best bike commute challenge ever. Our team had more riders and one that rode 100% of the month of September.
I personally rode 146 miles on my work commutes. This is quite an accomplishment for me. Last year I was team captain, but never made one of the commutes. it is 10 miles each way and I always had an excuse. This year I rode 33% of the time and I felt so good every time I rode.
Our team was awesome! Thanks for pushing me.
Our serves was down on Friday and I could not log the last of my September rides. Can I still cathc up?
I am echoing Toby’s remarks as I need to pull out September stats so I can let my team and my school have the results. The sooner the better!
Thanks so much!
I personally rode 370 miles. I had set the goal of *never* driving to work a few months back and was averaging about 2-3 bike rides a week and the other using TriMet. The Bike Commute Challenge was the perfect kick in the pants to shoot for a perfect score. Apart from missing the first 3 days of the month, I rode every day I worked. A coworker of mine achieved 100%.
I wimped out the beginning of Oct with the arrival of the rain and dropping temps, but got back in the saddle again today. I plan to continue riding.
All the stats will be at the after party on Wednesday evening in Portland (starts at 5:30 pm, at SE Madison and 6th). But if you need yours and can’t make the party, email stephanie [at] bta4bikes [dot] org.
It’s nice the stats will be at the after-party, but unless you want to keep the BCC (and BTA) so overly Portland-centric, you might want to make it easier for non-Portlanders to get the stats than by having to individually email someone. Isn’t that what the website is for?
(I could also complain that non-Portlanders can never attend the after-party, at least not if we’re faithful bikers and don’t want to drive to Portland for an evening, but I’ve gotten over that over the years.)
I have been quite disappointed with the management of the BCC this year, since no emails were sent to team leaders or participants, and we had to check the blog periodically. I liked it much better the way you did it last year (and preceding years).
In my message above, I expressed disappointment with the lack of weekly emails from BCC organizers. But I see on the website that they were intended: “Your team will automatically receive a weekly email from the BTA about the program and a final email in October announcing the results.”
Did these get sent or not? Did my email program filter them out? The last email I received from BCC was on 8/15.
Hi Dave,
We did send out emails throughout the Challenge again this year; I’m sorry they didn’t make it through to you. We’re also working on the problems that have prevented us from showing individual results for September on the website after the end of the month. We’ll be posting the final results on the site tomorrow, as well as sending out the last email to participants including the last prize drawing results.
Hello – Thanks for sponsoring the Challenge. It’s great. I was frustrated this year however. I signed up and entered my first couple of days but the site was down or I couldn’t update my miles each time I tried after that – so I gave up. At least for me, your totals are innaccurate (low).
Chuck
Hey, can we keep track of our bike commutes throughout the year?