Every September and May, the Council runs month-long biking challenges through the Love to Ride platform aimed at getting new and occasional riders to bike more frequently. Workplaces and riders across Philadelphia compete for prizes and encourage each other to embrace biking as a sustainable form of transportation. This is a piece of the Council’s transportation work to convert single occupancy vehicles trips to sustainable transportation options like walking, transit, and biking!
Transportation is the leading source of emissions that contribute to climate change, and private cars make up the largest part of that sector. Additionally, traffic and idling negatively impact local air quality and are a major contributor to ozone pollution which in turn can cause Air Quality Action Days for the region. Therefore, encouraging more people to take up biking, and providing resources to support them switching is a vital piece of tackling transportation emissions.
During the course of the 2023 Philadelphia Cycle September Challenge 412 riders took part from 56 workplaces and logged a total of 4,898 trips including 1,751 transportation trips which reduced CO2 emissions by 3,050 lbs. Of these riders, 96 were new and occasional riders. All told, during the month of September riders logged 73,235 miles of trips – equivalent to traveling three times around the earth at the equator!
One of the ways the Love to Ride challenge encourages new and occasional riders to get more comfortable riding is through courses. These short interactive lessons on how to navigate the complexities of biking help to build riders’ confidence – whether that is biking in all weather conditions, how to bike as safely as possible in the city, what to wear while riding, or how to make sure your bike is safe for the road. The most popular courses for Philadelphia riders include Riding in the Rain, Riding in the Heat, and Riding One-handed, which shows that riders are looking for resources that help them expand their biking skills and allow them to bike even when conditions are not ideal.
This Spring, the Council will run the May Bike Month Challenge and even if you haven’t participated before, or are not someone who thinks of themselves as a cyclist it’s a great time to push yourself to try using this sustainable form of transportation. You can set personal goals at the start of the month – whether that is simply getting on a bike one time, riding to work twice a week, or riding every day all month – it’s a great way to take fewer single occupancy car trips. If you are already an ardent cyclist, the Bike Month Challenge is a great time to encourage coworkers, friends, and family to give biking a try. At the end of the day, more people biking means fewer people in cars as well as more people interested in adding bike infrastructure like bike lanes and bike racks, which make it easier for even more people to adopt biking as a form of transportation.
If you follow Clean Air Council on social media or get our emails you’ve probably been asked to participate in Bike Month or Cycle September. But why are these programs which seek to increase biking in Philadelphia an important effort for protecting clean air?
Transportation makes up the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions in the US. In Philadelphia, in addition to the emissions impacts, single occupancy vehicles are a major cause of traffic congestion which means idling cars and the exhaust they release lower air quality. To combat the ways car travel negatively influences the air we breathe, Council staff implement programs that encourage people to switch to sustainable forms of transportation. Getting more people riding bikes is an important part of the solution in helping to make our air cleaner, roads safer, and limit the contribution from single occupancy vehicles to CO2 emissions.
During Cycle September and Bike Month in May, the Council uses the Love to Ride online platform to encourage people of all backgrounds, identities, and experience levels to challenge themselves to bike for transportation. A transportation trip is any bike ride that’s primary purpose is to get to (or from) a destination, for instance biking to work, the store, or to visit a friend. While there are many personal, communal, and global benefits to biking for transportation, there are also some real barriers for many people to switch to biking. The daunting task of navigating biking on busy city streets, not owning a bicycle, or a lack of available bike parking at work or other destinations are just a few of the reasons that can make it a challenge to try biking. Communities need interventions to make cycling more accessible for people. The Love to Ride platform helps to eliminate some of these barriers by connecting new and occasional cyclists with the resources and community support to get them biking during the challenge month and keep them biking in the future. In turn, bike challenges like Cycle September help get more people invested in biking in the region, and passionate about supporting bike infrastructure in their local community.
During the Cycle September workplace challenge, workplaces across the greater Philadelphia region register for free on the Love to Ride website and compete against other workplaces of similar sizes to get more people biking during the month. Individuals and workplaces win prizes, and this challenge rewards new riders for setting up and achieving personal goals. Workplaces are an important space to promote biking, because for people who work in-person, replacing even a few car commutes with bike commutes is a great way to decrease pollution. One study found that switching one trip from car to bike reduces an average commuter’s total transportation emissions that day by 67%. Even for workplaces that are fully virtual the challenge provides a good way for coworkers to reconnect while working together to become more sustainable.
As September approaches you can sign up your workplace to participate in this year’s challenge, donate a prize to help encourage biking, or start setting your own goals to replace car trips with bike rides.
To learn more about the Cycle September and Bike Month reach out to Maya Frydman, Transportation Outreach Coordinator at mfrydman@cleanair.org.
