May 2013 National Bike Challenge – Call to all federal workers!

[KLizotte]

The Federal Bike to Work May National Challenge is picking up speed and heading towards you! Last May, 20 different federal agencies participated, including over 500 riders cranking out over 5200 trips and 65,000 miles. This May, we are recruiting more riders, more captains, and more agencies; we hope to identify bike commuting leaders and highlight similar successes among federal agencies in other cities, especially in DC. The challenge was recently selected by the Whitehouse Council on Environmental Quality as a GreenGov Spotlight Communities to showcase an example of ongoing federal government energy sustainability.

Want to learn more about the challenge? Please see the attached document for wide distribution. A series of webinars is already scheduled to describe the challenge for any federal employee in any state interested in learning more.

Webinar: 2013 Federal Bike To Work May National Challenge

Date & Time: Thursday, March 21, 4PM (EST) / 1PM (PST)
or
Date & Time: Tuesday, April 2, 2PM (EST) / 11AM (PST)

Please register for webinars directly with Max Sevareid: max.sevareid@dot.gov

Sincerely,

Max Sevareid
Regional Program Manager
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Pacific Northwest – Region 10
915 2nd Avenue, Suite 3140
Seattle, WA 98174-1079
Phone: 206-220-7686 (Direct Line)
Email: max.sevareid@dot.gov

[rcannon100]

The is one of two “I dont get this” posts.

This is a lot of talk about the idea a federal bike challenge – but I dont see any information on the challenge itself. How would it work. How would people sign up. How many to teams. How is it scored. Etc. I realize I am speaking to no one who would have answers – but it is strange to have a challenge starting little more than a month away and have essentially no information other than that it is going to happen.

[consularrider]

@rcannon100 47177 wrote:

The is one of two “I dont get this” posts.

This is a lot of talk about the idea a federal bike challenge – but I dont see any information on the challenge itself. How would it work. How would people sign up. How many to teams. How is it scored. Etc. I realize I am speaking to no one who would have answers – but it is strange to have a challenge starting little more than a month away and have essentially no information other than that it is going to happen.

I guess we have to sign up for remaining April 2 webinar. I think this is supposed to work in conjunction with the BTA May Bike to Work Challenge?

[KLizotte]

Sorry, I don’t have any more info at this time. I accidentally forgot about the webinar yesterday. Will try to make the one on April 2.

[rcannon100]

I emailed the POC – actually an exchange of several emails – and had a circular conversation where he kept trying to get me to come to a meeting, and I kept asking for the details. To my knowledge, this is not even being coordinated with the Interagency Federal Bicycle Working Group. My old boss taught me that when you dont understand — there is something you dont understand. I dont understand.

If you ever find out the who, what, where, where…. please post.

My thought is, if we can understand what is going on with the NBC (what constitutes a team, and how do they get scored against each other) – then lets do a federal agency challenge through the NBC.

[americancyclo]

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Webinar running right now…

March 26 at 1:00 P.M. EST (10 A.M. PST) is the Federal Bike to Work Month Challenges Webinar.

Register today at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/711445064

Federal Bike to Work Month Challenges
Hear about how to create a federal bike challenge in your region. The Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Region 10 and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10, joined with Cascade Bicycle Club (Seattle, WA) and Bicycle Transportation (Portland, OR) to host month-long bike commute challenges. Their one month challenge included 522 federal riders from more than 20 agencies, two government branches, and four states. These dynamic bicycle challengers logged 65,274 miles by commuting to and from work, equating to 63,968 pounds of CO2 reduced and over three million calories burned.

Hear Their Story
The Federal Bike to Work Spotlight Community has an inspiring story to share. Join us and learn how you can share in their story.

What is a GreenGov Spotlight Community? When multiple federal partners located near each other work together to leverage regional resources and help achieve the goals of President Obama’s Executive Order 13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance. Spotlight Communities help cut government costs, increase efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, leverage resources among different agencies, and show us what is possible when we work together.

[americancyclo]

The presentation will be posted on the GreenGov Spotlight Communities – Federal Green Challenge webpages: http://www.epa.gov/federalgreenchallenge/spotlight/index.html It usually takes about a week.

[rcannon100]

I kept asking what, where, when, why, how the challenge is…. and never got answers.

Well an answer was slipped under my door by a cyclist across the street from an unnamed three letter federal agency.

The challenge is through the Commuter Challenge http://commutechallenge.cascade.org/

• It is teams of up to ten.
• It is during the month of may
• Inside the challenge are leagues. In particular, there is a Federal League with currently 41 teams http://commutechallenge.cascade.org/league/208/federal-bike-to-work-challenge/
• The teams are ranked based on trips, miles and Percent of commute trips
• At the end of May Cascade tallies the final rankings and recognizes individual, team, organization and collective achievements with award certificates and prizes.
• At the end of May Cascade tallies the final rankings and recognizes individual, team, organization and collective achievements with award certificates and prizes.

So there it is. The Fed Challenge is a league inside of a bigger May bicycle challenge. The privacy policy looks pretty good – you dont have to use your real name. Participation is free.

[americancyclo]

rant
I started with this, but I really hate the logging system, and am already locked out of a week of riding earlier this month. I know I should care being a Fed, but I can’t be bothered to manually enter these things. It’s why there are apps and garmins in the first place!
/rant

[ShawnoftheDread]

You have to pass the Federal Biking Challenge to know what’s in the Federal Biking Challenge.

[rcannon100]

No Shawn…. you have to go to meetings. Meetings. And if you cant go to meetings, you have to go to webinars. Somehow you are going to have to sit and be very unproductive for at least one hour in order to gain entrance. :rolleyes:

Cyclo: Remember, efficiency is our middle name. Oh wait, its not.

[consularrider]

I keep mixing up the Cascade one with the BTA one. For the BTA, my agency team has three members from a prior year who aren’t logging anything this year. For both of these it looks like you are only supposed to count the direct miles to an from work, not all the extra miles you may do for other reasons. You don’t have to log anything other than whether it was a roundtrip or a one way commute. The way I look at the scoring of the teams and companies is based on percentage of commutes by bike rather than total miles ridden. And then there is the Endomondo/Kimberly-Clark/LAB national commute challenge which has international participants where all your miles count.

[adamx]

ICE Cycles from DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement is now teamed for the challenge!

[rcannon100]

Nice name Adam!

Who is here that is a fed agency doing this challenge. I guess the question is, what are the team names. Havent a clue what we could do, but maybe we could do our own end of challenge celebration. Maybe the Federal Interagency Task Force on Bike Commuting could sponsor some thing (making it something resembling official). Seems like it might have to be maybe a lunchtime celebration as feds flee to far off places.

[KLizotte]

I’ve joined the Cascades challenge as a member of my workplace’s team (a fed agency).

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