Take the Bike Commuter Challenge

We’re about two-thirds of the way through Bike Month 2013, and while the weather may not be perfect today, we’ve been enjoying seeing so many of you out riding bikes all month.  Which brings us to this month’s Bike Commuter Challenge. 

Although the challenge has been going all month, it’s not too late to get signed up and to log your bike commutes for the month.  Aside from the glow in your heart you’ll get from knowing you’re one of the cool kids, there are a numer of other benefits to taking the challenge.

1. The chance to win fabulous prizes like an overnight getaway to Portland, including travel on Amtrak.
2. Signing up for the challenge will encourage you to ride more, and riding instead of driving means more of those great benefits of exercise.
3. Giveaways like Tacoma Bike gift certificates, tune-ups, and more.
4. Bike racks don’t have 2-hour parking limits.
5. When you’re riding your bike you don’t produce green house gasses like you do when you drive your car.
6. You can challenge your co-workers, friends, and family to track trips too… and then beat their numbers.
7. Gas is expensive.
8. One fewer car on the roads means less traffic.  No one likes sitting in traffic.  
9. People who ride bikes regularly are more interesting, more attractive, and happier than those who don’t.  (Okay, we made that up, but it seems like the kind of thing that could be true.)
10. By registering your bike trips, they count towards the hard data that bicycle advocates need to back up anecdotal evidence that more people are riding.  That hard data is the kind of evidence needed to support requests for improved bicycle friendly policies and transportation investments.

And of course, if you’re a bicyclist, even a part-time or every-once-in-a-while one, it’s that last one that should be the real incentive to log your trips.  If you know someone who has been on the scary side of a bike/car encounter, or have ever thought, “well, I would ride my bike, but I don’t know a safe way to get from A to B…,” this is a concrete step you can take to stand up and be counted.

Plus there’s free stuff on the line.

Register for the 2013 Bike Commuter Challenge at www.piercetripscalendar.com.