BTA celebrates 1.25 million miles logged in ‘Commute Challenge’

Jeff Capizzi (L) — shown here with BTA Director
Rob Sadowsky — logged 1,524 miles during September.
(Photo: Will Vanlue/BTA)

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) hosted a party in the Rose Quarter Wednesday night to congratulate riders and celebrate another successful Bike Commute Challenge. In the month of September, the event’s 11,745 participants (split into 1,395 teams) logged 1,278,343 miles while riding their bikes to and from work (those numbers are down slightly from 2011, see all results here).

At the party Wednesday night, participants were treated to free pizza, beer, and a big prize raffle. The BTA also awarded individuals for exemplary commuting and teams got to see where they stacked up against the competition. Teams are made up of employees from businesses and organizations across Oregon (split into three categories and then separated by number of employees). The challenge is to get the highest percentage of employees logging trips (it’s not based on total miles).

And here are the 2012 winners:
Business and Non- Profits

• 1 Employee: HoltzReport, Dr.Jeffrey D Sher, Kohles Bioengineering, The Copy Center at Camera Graphics, Willamette Pedestrian Coalition, Boont Rocks!, Pedal PT – All 100%
• 2-4 Employees: Glad Rags – 100%
• 5-24 Employee: Cast Iron Coding – 100%
• 25-99 Employees: WSI – 90.95%
• 100-499 Employees: SERA Architects – 53.04%
• 500+ Employees Wieden + Kennedy – 14.18%

Public Agencies

• 1-24 Employees: Commissioner Saltzman’s Office – 56.39%
• 25-99 Employee: U.S Geological Survey Portland – 37.57%
• 100-499 Employees: City of Portland Bureau of planning and Sustainability – 32.69%
• 500+ Employee: Oregon Department of Environmental Quality – 11.20%

Bike Shops

• 1-8 Employees: Metropolis Cycle Repair – 96.50%
• 9-15 Employees: Bike Gallery – Downtown – 96.45%
• 16+ Employees: Bike Gallery- Operations/Warehouse – 47.64%

In addition to the team winners (and bragging rights that come with it), the BTA handed out three special recognition awards: Most New Riders: Daimler Trucking – 45 new riders; Brian Reynolds Distance Award: Jeff Capizzi, Portland State Office Building – 1,524.1 miles; and Brad Buchanan Team Captain of the Year: Paula Funatake of NWEA.

BTA communications guy Will Vanlue asked Capizzi what the hardest part of all that riding was. “The food,” Jeff said with a chuckle. According to Vanlue, “Jeff said he had to eat an extra breakfast and extra dinner each day and sometimes his wife would meet him along his commute to drop off more food to fuel his ride home.” Now that’s commitment.

— Learn more about the Bike Commute Challenge and download complete results here.