Bicycle federation honors organizations that met the Challenge
Last month, the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation honored participants and winners in the 14th annual Bicycle Commuter Challenge at a luncheon at the Fairmont Chicago hotel.
The luncheon, presented by SRAM Corp., brought together bike-commuting advocates from all over the Chicago area. I was honored to attend and accept my company's (The Pepper Group) trophy for 100 percent employee participation.
Organizational participation in the Challenge this year grew 58 percent, as more than 2,700 employees from 205 organizations rode their bicycles to work at least once during the week of June 9-15.
Participants were divided into the categories of public agency, business/non-profit and bicycle-related business, plus the new college/university category.
Each team competed against teams from other organizations of similar size and category.
The 2007 Bicycle Commuter Challenge winners were:
•Public Agency: Chicago Department of Transportation (500-plus employees); Chicago Department of Environment (100-499); Montefiore Special School-Special Education (25-99); and Worth Public Library (5-24)
•Business/non-profit: Field Museum (500-plus employees); Adler Planetarium (100-499); Center for Neighborhood Technology (25-99); and Design Integrity (5-24)
•Bicycle-related business: SRAM (24-99 employees); and Chicago Athlete Magazine (5-24)
•College/university: Adler School of Professional Psychology (500-plus employees); Northwestern University Library (100-499); Northwestern University's psychology department (25-99); and the University of Illinois at Chicago's undergraduate recruitment (5-24).
With the skyrocketing price of gasoline, it's probably a good time for a refresher on the benefits of bike commuting.
Of course, the benefits aren't limited your wallet. Improved fitness, state of mind, and the opportunity to not pollute our air rank pretty high up there as well.
The Bicycle Federation has some wonderful free materials available on its Web site, www.biketraffic.org, to help you get started with commuting by bike.
Here are a few of them:
•Bicycling in traffic isn't as scary as it looks from the sidewalk.
•Bicyclists don't usually get hit by motorists from behind -- one of the most common fears.
•Cyclists do get into trouble when they don't act like the other vehicles around them -- namely, cars.
Because you probably know how to drive a car, you already know how to get through traffic. You just have to apply this knowledge to bicycling.
More bike crashes happen on off-street paths than in traffic. Why? On paths, people bike next to walkers, runners, skaters, skateboarders, dogs, and small children.
And don't feel like you need to bicycle to work every day. I often have conflicts where I need to drive my car, but even riding a day or two each week can make a big difference.