Mayor's Bike Ride - May 11, 2012

Join the Mayors of Omaha, Bellevue, and Council Bluffs in a ride to promote commuter cycling in the metro area.

The Annual Ride to Work with the Mayor will celebrate May as NATIONAL BIKE MONTH!! 

Meet on Friday, May 11 at 8:00 AM at the Bob Kerrey Bridge. Presentations begin at 8:30 AM and Bike Rides with the Mayors begin at 9:00 AM.

Share this with your friends and co-workers.

Paging Leavenworth Commuters...

If you find yourself searching for the proverbial white courtesy phone after reading the headline, then we have an opportunity for you! This opportunity comes in the form of an upcoming community meeting regarding proposed bicycle infrastrucure improvements along Leavenworth between I-480 and 24th Street.

When: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 1:00 PM-2:30 PM
Where: Greek Orthodox church - 602 Park Avenue

The meeting is primarily for business owners along that corridor, but we'd like to make sure that the cyclist views are also represented. This is a great opportunity to educate business and homeowners about the benefits of bicycle infrastructure.

We'll continue to keep everyone posted about the project, so stay tuned!

First lady inspires staff chef to commute by bike

Michelle Obama has made it a goal to get the nation's kids fit, but her work also seems to be rubbing off on her staff. NBC's Kristen Welker reports.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/45161973#45161973

Raise your hand if you'll be bike commuting this winter!

Will you be biking to work this winter?  If so, Activate Omaha needs YOU!

We're coming off the heels of our most successful  Bike Omaha Commuter Challenge ever, and we want to carry the momentum into the winter.

The winter challenge (WBOCC) will be very informal, just giving people the opportunity to log their trips and miles for one big team.  (See the Activate Omaha website for all of the details, and then register at www.cycle-tracker.com/activate_omaha .) 

Here is the important part:  Having the ability to show concrete numbers to the Powers That Be about the number of people riding is worth its weight in gold to us in our quest to make Omaha more bike friendly.  We are getting a good handle on those riding during the warm weather months.  We hope that you will help us by signing up and logging those winter trips and miles, even though it might seem silly to you.

Want to bike to work over the winter, but not sure about what kind of gear you need?  Omaha Bikes will have you covered on that!  We will be hosting a Winter Bike Commuting Clinic on October 23.  More info coming to this space very soon!!

Bike Omaha Commuter Challenge: Inside the Numbers

Well, we've reached the 14 week mark of Activate Omaha's 2011 Bike Omaha Commuter Challenge.  This year's challenge has been expanded to May 1 - October 1, which is 22 weeks; however, we wanted to pause at the end of week 14 and take a snapshot of the stats so that we could compare "apples to apples" to the stats of the previous 5 years.  What we found is very interesting - and we're curious on your take, too!

Bear in mind as you ponder this that 2008 was the summer of $4.00/gallon of gas.

Data for your consideration:

NUMBER OF TEAMS:      NUMBER OF MILES:

2006 = 27                              2006 = 77,300
2007 = 32                              2007 = 109,000
2008 = 55                              2008 = 134,593
2009 = 60                              2009 = 129,104
2010 = 62                              2010 = 157,852
2011* = 109                          2011* = 157, 682

OK, so we had 47 (!!!) new teams in 2011, yet our mileage was still 170 miles short of 2010, when we had 62 teams?  Kind of a bummer .... until you look at this:

NUMBER OF RIDERS:       NUMBER OF TRIPS:
2010:  1000                              2010 = 10,500
2011*: 1352                             2011*= 12,054

These numbers have me very excited.  We have 359 more riders and 1554 (!!!) more trips in 2011.  This tells me that the new riders we added to the rolls are not riding as far as those who have participated in year's past ... which leads me to wonder: 

Has the idea of bicycle commuting in Omaha started reaching past the "choir" and into the masses? 

If I'm new to bike commuting (or cycling in general), I'm not as likely to start out going door to door, I'm probably going to start with a park/ride or bus/ride.  Another theory:  I live close to my office, but I've never considered riding to work before. 

Either way, this is cause for a happy dance.  More people making more short trips by bike is EXACTLY what we are going for. (...despite my recent challenge to BOCC team captains to see if we could break the 2010 mileage record. What can I say, I'm competitive. J). 
What is YOUR theory? 

In the mean time, carry on, bike commuters!  The challenge has been expanded from 14 weeks to 22 weeks  based on feedback from many of you who want to take advantage of the best weather of the year.  We'll celebrate with the BOCC Wrap Up Shindig on Friday, September 30 - so save the date!  More info will be coming soon.