Are You Up to the Challenge?

Trailnet issues September 'Shift Your Commute' challenge

Trailnet is issuing its third, and largest, bike commute challenge in September. Cyclists are encouraged to log their bike commute miles on Trailnet’s interactive website, www.shiftyourcommute.com, and learn their carbon emissions saved and calories burned while competing against hundreds of individuals and 100+ workplaces throughout the St. Louis area. 

 

Trailnet is incentivizing cyclists to participate with weekly prize drawings for individual commuters and, at the awards party at the end of the car free challenge, they’ll present a prize to the workplace team with the highest commute rate.

 

"The September Challenge is a time when workplaces around the region can compete for who can log the most car free commutes," explains Trailnet’s TravelGreen Program Manager Emily Luten. "There are terrific prizes for individuals and workplaces logging miles traveled by bike, but the best prize of all are those bragging rights from beating St. Louis's top employers at being green."

 

Trailnet’s ShiftYourCommute website has been up since May, 2011 and has attracted 605 individual riders and 123 teams that want to track their miles, calories burned, and carbon emissions saved. Just during May, 2012 – Bike to Work Month – bike commuters logged 20,489 transportation miles by bike, burned 594,181 calories, diverted 20,079 pounds of CO2 from the environment, and did not use 1,000+ gallons of gasoline.

 

Fifteen workplace team captains gathered for a Happy Hour at the Trailnet offices on August 14 to discuss ways to encourage their co-workers to join their teams and bring back to them commuting basics about biking to work, from which routes are best to how to look professional after biking to work. Team captains left the happy hour knowing how to help their team mates pick MetroLink and MetroBus routes they can combine with their bike ride if they live too far away from work to bike the whole distance.

 

Miles that count toward the September car free challenge are commuting miles to work. All entries must be in by the last day of the month by 8:00 p.m. to be considered in the running for first place. Winners are determined by commute rate, not miles travelled.

 

For more information on how to join Trailnet’s September Challenge, visit and register at shiftyourcommute.com,  Or contact Emily Luten at (314) 436-1324 ext. 112.

# # #