. Flagstaff Biking Organization » Worksite Challenge

Worksite Challenge

Please support our sponsors so they can contribute to us. Click here to find out how!

 

The Worksite Challenge

We want to get more people out of their cars and on their bikes, so FBO has been challenging worksites to motivate their employees to do just that since 2002. The most rewarding part about the event is showing new people how easy and fun riding to work or school can be. This is why we do the challenge. This year’s challenge will run for all week! 5 full days from Sunday midnight to Friday midnight.

How the Challenge works…

Each office or sub-office is lead by a heroic and motivated volunteer worksite coordinator. Their job is to distribute information we will provide to the workers at their site, helping them get started if they are new to bike commuting with bike, routing, and safety tips. Each participant logs on to our website from May 11th to 15th, reporting their name, worksite and miles pedaled. Logging-in qualifies participants for daily raffle prizes and increases their worksite’s participation rate.

The top worksites in the large and medium categories win a Freedom commuter bicycle for everyone to use for errands at the worksite. The small worksite winners get a free lunch at Fratelli Pizza. AND they are telling Flagstaff (and it’s city planners) how we value bicycle commuting. freedom-diamond08.jpg

We have 3 worksite size categories:

  • Large worksites of 40 or more employees
  • Medium worksites of 11-39 employees
  • Small worksites of 4-10 employees


The worksite with the highest participation rates for BTWW wins their category. In the case of a tie we look at the highest average round-trip distance per-person.  Worksites must have the minimum number of employees averaged over the week.

To the Top

SOME CHANGES IN THE CHALLENGE IN 2009:

More pedalers… More Success!

To encourage greater participation, we are counting 5 full days toward the commuter bike winners. This means the coordinator needs to provide FBO with worksite total numbers everyday, as well as the number of pedestrians and bus-riders (ie, non-drivers).

Huge worksites are a huge challenge for the worksite coordinator, so FBO continues to encourage worksites of more than 100 people to subdivide into smaller (legitimate–no cherry-picking the cyclists!) location-based groupings; such as different floors, buildings or departments. These are easier to manage and motivate! It’s best to coordinate people you work around and see everyday, even if that includes cutting across departmental divisions in favor of building or wing clusters. FBO is also challenging each worksite to enhance the BTWW challenge with intra- and inter-worksite challenges. Put up your own prizes or wagers and we will referee the results. City vs County? UPS vs Post Office? Accounting vs. Shipping? And be sure to let us know the results and we will announce who wins!
 

  • FBO is starting with a cyclist challenge! Roadies vs Mt Bikers. Yes.. it’s the rumble in the jungle, Seaking of the Peaks, Dirt-bags vs Leg-shavers. WHO will log the most miles? We are not interested in which of your quiver of bikes you ride each day, only your spiritual affiliation. Asphalt or Rocks? 

We are adjusting worksite size classifications as well to encourage more participation. The “Large Worksite” will be 40 or more people, and the “Medium Worksite” will be 11 to 39 people. We will try having a “Small Worksite” category of 4-10 people, the prize will be a group Lunch.

Rotating work-sizes should give more Flagstaff employees the opportunity to compete for the Breezer Freedom bikes. Worksites must be valid businesses to qualify, found in the yellow pages or on the web. If the winner of the Breezer Bike does not need the bike, it reverts to FBO’s discretion to find a worthy home for it.

Can your worksite ante up some raffle prizes? Your worksite can demonstrate its commitment to bicycle commuting by donating to our raffle. Consider gift certificates, merchandise, services, etc. They’re tax deductible! Your worksite will get advertisement on this website when the prize is announced and a warm fuzzy. Plus, the winner will come to your business to pick up the prize.

Everyone wins in this challenge. Worksites that register will get a package of incentives including event info, bike stickers, an event poster, the BTWW Special Edition newsletter, and bike suitability maps with loads of commuting and riding info. All registrants will be placed in a raffle for great giveaways courtesy of our sponsors.

In addition, by showing your support you will be providing us and the city with valuable knowledge about the value of our bike system and proof of the importance of developing facilities wisely. Most importantly you realize the many pleasures of a little fresh air before and after work.

Top

Each Worksite has a Coordinator whose role is to:

Register your worksite. Worksite coordinators register their organization, as well as provide potential numbers of employees and cyclists. If you are having trouble signing up as worksite coordinator, contact Susan and she will help you. If your place of work is already registered, please contact the point person to express your support and see how you can help with efforts to encourage and register co-workers during B2WW.

For everyone who rides: The log-in registration will start Monday the 11th at 12:01 am and run daily through Friday midnight. Every day we will have drawings for terrific prizes donated by local businesses who support this event- bike accessories, outdoor gear, free meals, activities, etc. We admit part of it is an incentive, part a little lure for you to register and help us prove how many people value quality bike support.

  • Start encouraging coworkers to ride and get them excited about the challenge for the coming week.
  • Hand out the list of events, and instructions for each person. (See below)
  • Make sure everyone understands how the challenge works.
  • Starting Monday, May 11th, everyone who rides each day should visit the site and follow the Log-In link to the participation form. This allows us to keep track of bike rates, giving us clout to advocate for better bike path and routes. It also qualifies each participant for the daily prize drawings. Logging in is super quick and easy.
  • If you don’t think a participant will sign-in or does not have access to the web, please arrange to do it for them.
  • The worksite coordinator needs to log in each day to enter the total number of employees that worked at the site that day– as well as how many people walked.
  • Go to the Nitty-Gritty Rules of the Challenge page here to find out more.

Back to the Top 

Worksite Challenge Stats and Carbon Footprint from 2007 & 2008:

Bike to Work Week was not without some challenges of its own. Like snow…on Tuesday, that tested the mettle of our fair-weather bike-commuters… and our numbers -slipped by half. FBO asked the greater Flagstaff cycling community to up the ante and the resounding response was “SURE, WE CAN DO IT!”

And Flagstaff did. Try these figures on for size:

  • 2008………………………………………2007
  • 2541 people logged in all week………………………………..1874 people
  • 1157 Individuals participated…………………………………..763
  • 170 Worksites registered (159 participated)………….123 worksites
  • 19,780 Miles were Logged………………………………………14,388 miles
  • Average Commute: 7.8 miles……………………………………7.7 miles

That’s an improvement of 40-55% OVER last year’s participation level. FLAGSTAFF CYCLISTS ROCK!

Longest Commutes:

  • 2008:  56 miles Matt Shaw (FMC-ER) & 55 miles, Drew Miller (Gore Med-East), 50 miles-Mars Brimhall (FMC-ICU).  Mars Brimhall logged 131 miles in 4 days.
  • 2007: 35 miles, Kerri Love, Novakinetics

Worksite with the greatest cumulative miles: 88 folks at Gore-Kendrick Peak logged 1120 miles; 670 miles for Lowell Observatory, 590 miles for Gore-Woody Springs Engineering. Prodigious!
Way to GO Everyone!

2008 Worksite Challenge Carbon Footprint
How much energy did we save? The average car on the road might get 17 mpg in the city…That’s…

    2008                                                                     2007

  • 1,240 gallons of gasoline………………………………..846 gallons OR…
  • 6,600 pounds of carbon……………………………….4,516 pounds of carbon *
  • 24,140 pounds of carbon dioxide that we spared the atmosphere

*This only includes carbon in the gasoline itself; not the carbon cost of exploration, extraction, refining and delivering of gas, much less the political/environmental costs of continuing petroleum supplies. BIKES ARE COOL!

How much did we burn? 19,800 miles for the average pedaler might require 865,000 calories or…

2008                                                                     2007

  • 19,800 miles………………………….14,400 miles
  • 1,230 Big Macs …………………………………890
  • 2,790 Slices of Pepperoni Pizza…………2,030
  • 5,090 Veggie Burgers……………………..3,700
  • 4,330 Donuts………………………………..3,140
  • 19,650 Servings of Broccoli……………..4,060
  • 1,910 Pounds of Tofu……………………..1,380
  • 9,300 Amstel Light Beers
  • 5,440 Fat Tire Ales
  • or
  • 250 Pounds of fat we burned off.

–Hope you’re hungry

*Assuming our average rider is 155 lbs and cycles at a moderate effort of 563 kcal/hr.

And that was just one week. Think what we do each week of each year? Think what we would accomplish if we maintained the BTWW number of bikes on the road year-round? Here’s hoping that each of you will ride just a little more each week.

To the Top

Find detailed Worksite/School Challenge Results with these pdf links  (right click and save as):


The 2008 Winners of the Worksite Challenge

Large Worksite: (5 day participation rate) 35 people or moreLowell Observatory

  1. Lowell Observatory 35.8% 7.2 miles/commute/person
  2. USGS Buildings 4 & 5: 34.0% 7.12 miles/commute/person
  3. Gore- Woody Springs Engineering: 24.5% 12.1 miles/commute/person

Professional River Outfitters & BreezerSmall Worksite (9-34 people)

  1. Absolute Bikes 96.3% 4.5 mi/commute/person (They defer the Breezer bike to PRO)
  2. Professional River Outfitters, Inc. 88.3% 7.37 mi/commute/person
  3. Arizona Raft Adventures 73.5% 7.52 mi/commute/person

Micro Worksite: (3-8 people)

1. COF Police Dept-Com Relations 75% 9.62 mi/commute/person
2. NAU Honors Program 66% 6.59 mi/commute/person

Past Challenge Winners:

Small Worksite

  • 2008: PRO Outfitters (Absolute Bikes deferred prize)
  • 2007: NAU Honors Program (Absolute Bikes deferred prize)
  • 2006: Biff’s Bagels (Absolute Bikes deferred prize)
  • 2005: PRO River Outfitters

Large Worksite

  • 2008: Lowell Observatory
  • 2007 FMC Emergency Deptbreezers-at-cafe.jpg
  • 2006: FMC Emergency Dept
  • 2005: Lowell Observatory

Questions? Contact Susan

Top
2008 School Challenge Results:
There were some determined individuals participating in the school challenges… future coordinators!

Sinagua High School won the Golden Sprocket Trophy for highest bike-commuting rate on Thursday amongst High Schools with 10.6%. Flagstaff Arts & Leaders Academy and Flagstaff High also had good participation. Good Going Y’all!

Northland Prep Academy won the Golden Sprocket Trophy for the smaller/middle school division, 2008. Great going! Caroline Rynn, a NPA student, rode 30 miles one day. Awesome, girl.

The following schools participated all week long.

Middle Schools included Flagstaff Middle School and Mt Elden Middle School

Pine Forest, Mt Charter, & Sechrist were the leaders among the Elementary Schools (K-6): Puente de Hózhó, Knoles, Sechrist, DeMiguel, and Thomas also logging in… Great start kids!

Parochial Schools got on the board! Mt Calvary Lutheran, San Francisco de Asis

All of the schools would benefit from some on-site enticements; be they teachers, parents or fellow-students. Volunteers? Contact me!

2008 Intra-Office Challenges:
We had lots of folks that joined in the spirit of Bike to Work Week Challenges with challenges between their divisions. Two offered a bike as a prize, others trophies. Here are some of their results…

  • Coconino County Ten teams representing 620 people produced a week-long participation rate of 4%. Big worksites are tough, that’s a good effort!. Parks and Rec, at 13%, triumphed under Tom Hanecak’s leadership, and they have an awesome trophy to show for it!
  • City of Flagstaff Competition was stiff between 17 departments representing 300 workers. Police Dept-Community Relations won with a 75% week-long biking rate. Honorable mentions to Wildcat Hill and FMPO. The winners got a Breezer bike that the city put up. COF had a week-long 15% participation rate.
  • Flagstaff Medical Center Under Mark Wille’s tireless leadership, FMC catapulted from 2 teams to 17 teams in 2008. The result was outstanding: FMC went from a weeklong participation rate of 1% to a terrific 14%, representing 620 people, tripling 2007 logins. They had a donated bike to offer as prize to the winning worksite, with ICU, Endoscopy and Radiology having fantastic turnout.
  • The Guidance Center The TGC, Totally Groovy Cheetahs, under the guidance of Motorless Mike, had two 6-person teams vying for high miles, with a weeklong total of 323. The VSO team won with 207 miles. Ride on!

THANKS to all the people who participated in 2008…

  • to each newbie that saddled up,
  • to each veteran cyclist that logged in “even though they ride everyday”,
  • to all the businesses and worksites that pitched in raffle prizes to entice more people to pedal,
  • to the worksite coordinators that gently prodded (or bludgeoned) their coworkers to join in,
  • to the many volunteers that gave of their time, wits and energy or donated bikes,
  • to the FBO board–past and present, who started BTWW in Flagstaff,
  • to Lucas Brunelle for donating his videos,
  • to sponsors FMC, Emmitt Barks Cartography, and Sam’s Club,
  • to Absolute Bikes for donating “Seasons”,
  • to Breezer Bikes for donating the Freedom bicycle prizes,
  • to our title sponsors-the City of Flagstaff,
  • and New Belgium Brewery,
  • and not the least
  • to $3.70 a gallon gas!

To ALL OF YOU… THANKS… we are all making Flagstaff a more Bicycle Friendly City!

Top 

Commuter tips: great resources and information:

 
Worksite Challenge Information and PDF links:

Here are pdf’s of the information in the 2009 worksite package. To conserve paper resources and prevent waste, we will include a limited number of copies in the worksite packages. You can print out more for you worksite here, or contact FBO if that isn’t possible.
Check back later if you are interested in pdf’s of the commuter maps of Flagstaff.

If you are unable to download and print more yourself, contact us.

 Top

//
| last editted by: Psiouxan on April 28, 2009 at 9:26 pm