Tonight in southeast Portland, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) will toast another successful Bike Commute Challenge.
The event, which has been held every September since 1995, is a friendly competition between workplaces to see who bike to work more. All participants log their commutes online to compete for bragging rights and awards.
This year, the Bike Commute Challenge had its highest rates of participation ever. Records were broken for number of workplaces (1,073), number of participants (10,689 people), and number of miles ridden (1,235,219.03).
According to the BTA, these numbers are double what they were in 2005. Another fantastic note about this event is that of the 10,689 individuals that participated, 2,869 of them signed up as new bike commuters.
The victors in all the different categories will be honored tonight. Below is a complete listing of the winners in each category (many companies had over 90% of their employees commuting the entire month!):
Business or nonprofit organizations with 1 employee reporting 100% commute rate
- Andrew Holtz – Holtz Report
- Dr. Jeffrey D Sher
- Peggy Pfenninger – Camera Graphics
- Cheryl Hummon – NW Zoo & Aquarium Alliance
- Charles Carroll – New Outlook Financial, LLC
- Michelle Blackwood – Acupuncture Works LLC
Businesses and nonprofit organizations with 2-4 employees
- Eclipse Foundation, with a 100% commute rate
Businesses and nonprofits with 5-24 employees
-
Stumptown Printers, with a 96.6% commute rate
Businesses and non-profits with 25-99 employees
- First place – Community Cycling Center with a commute rate of 78%
- Second place – Chris King Precision Components with a commute rate of 62.3%
- Third place – Wallis Engineering with a commute rate of 62%
Businesses and non-profits with more than 100-499 employees
-
First Alternative Co-op of Corvallis with a 38% commute rate
Businesses and non-profits with more than 500 employees
-
NCNM with a 12.6% commute rate
Public agencies with less than 25 employees
-
Portland Parks and Recreation- Adaptive and Inclusive Recreation program with a 61% commute rate
Public agencies with 25-99 employees
-
Office of Sustainable Development with a 45.7% commute rate
Public agencies with 100-499 employees
-
City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services with a 26.5% commute rate
Public agencies with greater than 500 employees
- Oregon Department of Environmental Quality with a 9.2% commute rate
Special Mention: The Brian Reynolds distance award given to commute with highest mileage
- Rick Martin with 1400 miles in 20 days of commuting
Bike Shops less than 8 employees
-
South Salem Cycleworks with a 94.6% commute rate
Bike shop with 9-15 employees
-
Bike Gallery Downtown with a 98.4% commute rate
Bike shop with 16 or more employees
-
Bike Gallery Hollywood with a 92.4% commute rate
Most new bike commuters prize (they’ll get a special Breakfast on the Bridge at time and place
of their choosing)
-
NCMN
If you took part in the Bike Commute Challenge, roll on over to the party tonight at the Organics to You Warehouse (starts at 5:30, 606 SE Madison St.).
[I can’t make it tonight, so if you go, share a report in the comments!]
Thanks for reading.
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Uhmm, what is with the tags? Flanders Street Bridge? Mountain Biking? Last year’s cyclecross? Front Page AND Page Two?
matthew,
the latest version of wordpress is doing some weird, buggy things with categories. not sure why it happens some times. i’ve fixed it.
Wow… Ricky Martin is a badass. I mean Rick. Way to go, everybody.
Nice work everyone. I rode every day last month. I don’t think I would have done it without the challenge. Now it is October and am really missing the awesome weather we had in September.
~n
I love commuting in the winter. All you need is a good jacket and gloves.
total commute miles breaking a MILLION? That is sweet. It’s a good stat to use early and often.
And I totally missed the fact that that is a picture of me until someone pointed it out… Sigh.
I think the commute rate numbers may be overstated. I believe this is the first year that participants could note which days they were not working, whereas in the past it was just assumed that paticiapnts worked every regular work day in September. The problem is, it is still assumed that all other (non-bike riding) workers at a given company are working (and commuting)every regular work day – so the numbers are going to be skewed upward, refecting a higher percentage of total bike commutes than actually occured. I doubt this will stop the BTA or PDOT from boasting about the big increases – they are on record claiming that 6 percent of Portland commutes (year round – based on a survey by the Portlaqnd city auditor)are by bike – which is patently absurd.
Kurt, I’ve seen you comment on the 6% figure over and over again on blog comments. Why the obsession?