May is Bike month and many cities around the country are having some sort of cycling related festivities. For the last couple of years, Columbus has had a Bike to Work Week (B2WW) which for 2010 has been re-badged as the Bike to Work Challenge. It's taking place from May 10-21. Rides are tallied for the 10-20 with the last day being used as a tallying and award day.
2008 was the first year of B2WW and it was really what spurred me into starting to cycle. That and my employer also offers an Eco-bucks program. Here's a little blurb about it. Basically, every time someone cycles/walks/runs/skips/skateboards/crabwalks to work they get $1, $0.50 if they carpool or take a bus. It's not a lot of money by any means, but it's a great little incentive. Now that I cycle full-time, it's a dinner out for me and The Teacher once a month. Back to the 2008 B2WW...we won! It was great!
The 2009 B2WW came along and we were obviously feeling pretty full of ourselves and excited to repeat our victory. In 2009 they made the week actually 2 weeks worth of riding. That was fine by me because I was sure it would give us the chance to stomp the competition even more...we lost. We came in second place and it was actually a bit of a punch in the gut. We had some pretty decent stats though. We had 23 people that were registered, 21 of which were active, meaning they made at least one trip.
This year, we are at 19 registered riders right now with at least another 3-4 more (that I know of) to register. I'm sure we'll have at least as many as we had last year. We are even doing an holding a bike tune-up think in our parking lot on Wednesday, the week before it starts. It will hopefully be just another way we can get more people participating. We'll be doing basic stuff as well as answering any questions and maybe providing some free schwag (I've got to get around to finding some first though).
Each year the whole event gets bigger with more cycling related events to take part in. There is a kick-off party that the Columbus Clydesdale and I will be going bright and early on the first day. There is also another event on Monday the 17th with the CEO's of Central Ohio. I think the first party is actually just more of a social gathering while the second event includes people talking about the future of Columbus cycling. I think I will plan to go to both, but it'll depend on if I can come into work late both days.
One thing is for sure, we will bring victory back to it's rightful home!
2008 was the first year of B2WW and it was really what spurred me into starting to cycle. That and my employer also offers an Eco-bucks program. Here's a little blurb about it. Basically, every time someone cycles/walks/runs/skips/skateboards/crabwalks to work they get $1, $0.50 if they carpool or take a bus. It's not a lot of money by any means, but it's a great little incentive. Now that I cycle full-time, it's a dinner out for me and The Teacher once a month. Back to the 2008 B2WW...we won! It was great!
The 2009 B2WW came along and we were obviously feeling pretty full of ourselves and excited to repeat our victory. In 2009 they made the week actually 2 weeks worth of riding. That was fine by me because I was sure it would give us the chance to stomp the competition even more...we lost. We came in second place and it was actually a bit of a punch in the gut. We had some pretty decent stats though. We had 23 people that were registered, 21 of which were active, meaning they made at least one trip.
This year, we are at 19 registered riders right now with at least another 3-4 more (that I know of) to register. I'm sure we'll have at least as many as we had last year. We are even doing an holding a bike tune-up think in our parking lot on Wednesday, the week before it starts. It will hopefully be just another way we can get more people participating. We'll be doing basic stuff as well as answering any questions and maybe providing some free schwag (I've got to get around to finding some first though).
Each year the whole event gets bigger with more cycling related events to take part in. There is a kick-off party that the Columbus Clydesdale and I will be going bright and early on the first day. There is also another event on Monday the 17th with the CEO's of Central Ohio. I think the first party is actually just more of a social gathering while the second event includes people talking about the future of Columbus cycling. I think I will plan to go to both, but it'll depend on if I can come into work late both days.
One thing is for sure, we will bring victory back to it's rightful home!
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