Bike To Work Week One Week Away

Monday, May 11, is the beginning of Bike to Work Week here in Columbus! Consider Biking, Yay Bikes, and a lot of individuals all over town are working very hard to make this the most successful Bike To Work Week in Columbus's history!

Consider Biking is working on a number of policy and infrastructure-related issues for the week, but also would like to encourage everyone to get out and ride!

To that end, they're partnering with Mayor "Bikin' Mike" Coleman to welcome everyone to the week's events with the kickoff on May 11 at the Statehouse West Lawn (the side facing the Huntington Building). You can start gathering at 7:30 am, and there will be coffee, food, live music, and cycling offerings for everyone while you want for the festivities to start at 8:30. More details are on the way!

If you'd like, the mayor will also be leading a commuter ride from OSU down High Street to the Statehouse and you can meet up with him there at 8:00 to begin the ride! The mayor will also be releasing the plans for cycling improvments on High Street, so this should be a very interesting event!

CB would also encourage you, if you're a regular (or even irregular) commuter cyclist, to fill out a survey that talks about your bike commuting habits. This will help greatly with CB's advocacy efforts, as they'll have the data to effectively lobby for more and better changes! And, if you take the five minutes that the survey requires, you'll be entered into a contest for ten $25 gift certifcates from cycling retailers all over the city! Free stuff is always good, so fill it out today!

I also encourage you to visit the Bike To Work Week web page and sign up for the Commuter Challenge! Meredith Joy, Austin Kocher, and the rest of the folks at the Bike to Work Week Planning Committee have been putting in a lot of work with NO budget to get this running. And the results are great!

The Bike To Work Week committee has put together the new-and-improved Commuter Challenge for 2009 after a very successful year in 2008. The statistics from last year were good:
  • 4 days
  • 29 Teams
  • 393 participants
  • 1,738 one-way commutes
  • 10,115 miles biked
  • 506 gallons of gas saved
  • 10,000 lb of CO2 avoided
  • 5.8 mile average 1-way trip
  • $5100 Fuel and auto maintenance savings
This year, there are already 964 riders on 93 teams (when I last checked) and the numbers are growing. The challenge this year is for TWO weeks of commuting, starting today! So get registered today, log your miles from this morning's ride (you did ride this morning, right?), and get cracking! If you plan on riding at all for this bike to work week, please sign up and start logging your miles!

I'm looking forward to a wildly successful Bike To Work Week in Columbus, and I'll be posting stuff to help you get ready all week! Keep posted for more and GET OUT AND RIDE!

People, not speed.

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