2008 AACC Commuter Mileage Challenge Results

Peter Costa, AACC Commuter Mileage Challenge Coordinator

 

May is “National Bicycle Month” with Bike to Work Day and Bike to Work Week as the high visibility events.   This year,  Alta Alpina Cycling Club (AACC) started the Commuter Mileage Challenge (CMC) as a way to encourage and challenge our members to use their bicycles in their daily commutes.  We hope that this year is the first of a long run of annual challenges.  

 

This year, May was a month of weather extremes, warm to hot the first two weeks and cold and wet the last two weeks.  Never the less, 16 riders participated and logged 1814 miles and over 307 trips (one rider didn’t provide his trips) through the month.   That represents approximately 10% 0f our registered membership in the month of May.

 

Individual honors go to everyone who participated.   The three riders with the most commuter miles were Robert Braun with 252 miles,  Jennie “The Generator” Hamiter with 240 miles and Mel Maalouf with 205 miles!   See chart for details.

 

We saved 90 US gal of gasoline based on 2006 US Dept of Transportation statistics for US passenger car (pick ups not included) fuel efficiency.1  That represents .0000000012% of the US annual consumption of gasoline.1  Considering it takes one 42 gallon “barrel” of crude oil to make approximately 23 US gallons of finished gasoline, 3.9 barrels of crude oil, fossil fuel, dino juice, or Jed Clampett’s “black gold, Texas tea” were saved.2,3,5   The atmosphere was saved an additional 1,746 pounds of Carbon Dioxide per my calculations from the US EPA’s Emmision Facts.4

 

The benefits of commuting by bicycle go beyond the “green” statistics…think increased energy and efficiency at work, training benefits, more time to do non-bike activities because you already rode today, financial benefits, and don’t forget the all important benefit…your significant other can’t complain about it.  So, it’s not too late to start using your bicycle to go to work, school, the bank, stores, restaurants, etc.  See you on the road.

 

References and Disclaimers:

  1. 2008 National Transportation Statistics, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, US Dept of Transportation.
  2. What’s In A Barrel of Oil?, California Energy Commission.
  3. How Many Gallons in a Barrel of Oil?, WikiAnswers.
  4. Emission Facts:  Greenhouse Gas Emissions From a Typical Passenger Vehicle, US Dept of Environmental Protection Agency, Feb. 2005.
  5. Jed Clampett’s name was used without his permission.

 

 

 

Participant

Mileage

Trips

Robert Braun

252

 

Jennie Hamiter

240

61

Mel Maalouf

205

52

Michael Bayer*

165.9

18

Scott Robertson

162.8

14

Nate Littrell

150

20

Becky Kemp

134

28

Chris Rhiner

110.5

19

Peter Costa

92

22

Suzy Stockdale

87

38

Mary Bennington

84

11

Rick Miyashiro

74

10

Tammy DeGiovanni

30

8

Vanessa Littrell

12

2

Sasha Littrell

12

2

Inge Costa

3

2

 

 

 

Total

1814.2

307