A challenge to bikers

How often can you ride your bike to campus this month?

That is what Portland State’s Transportation and Parking Services and the Bicycle Cooperative want to know, and they are challenging students to bike to and from school as much as possible in May for the Bike to PSU Challenge.

The challenge is brand new this year and kicked off on May 1. It is a joint project with Portland’s Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA). According to Ian Stude, bike co-op manager and transportation options coordinator for PSU, the challenge was modeled after a contest the BTA holds citywide in September, but this one is open exclusively to PSU students and faculty.

“Walking and biking to school promotes healthy communities, healthy kids and a healthy environment,” said Lillian Karabaic, the Safe Routes to School Program outreach coordinator with the BTA. She said that through the bike challenge, more people in school will start walking and biking to school.

The contest entails riders registering and logging their trips to and from PSU on a Web site created for the event. All the logs are calculated by the BTA and PSU Transportation Services and compared to competitors’ rides. PSU riders will compete against area K-12 students in the BTA Safe Routes to School Program.

The individual who has the highest percentage of bike commutes at the end of the month is declared the winner. If anyone bikes at least seven trips, they are eligible to enter a raffle for prizes.

The BTA and the PSU Transportation Services decided on this venture together when the BTA invited Portland State to create a challenge between college and elementary school students.

“We thought it would be fun to see if students could bike more than a fifth-grader,” Stude said.

The aim for PSU Transportation Services, according to Stude, is to get people involved in bicycling and to participate in friendly competition.

Karabaic said the BTA has a goal for the yearly citywide competition of engaging 250 families who have never commuted by bicycle or foot. She said it has already exceeded its goal of 2,000 participants registered, with more than 4,000 registering overall.

“We’re going to whip those PSU students into shape with our tough-as-nails biking and walking families,” said Karabaic about the competition.

As of May 1, 200 riders had signed up for the month-long PSU competition, and there is no deadline for when students can start participating.

To entice more riders to join, PSU Transportation and Parking Services will hold free breakfasts in the South Park Blocks every Thursday. Seminars on bike safety and equipment will be held once a week and are sponsored by the Portland Department of Transportation.

For more information, visit www.biketopsuchallenge.com.