Mayor Jim Suttle and Council Bluffs Mayor Tom Hanafan today lead Omaha area cyclists in the 2010 Mayors’ Bicycle Ride to kick off Bike to Work Week, which is May 17-21.
“Biking and other balanced forms of transportation, such as city buses and ridesharing programs, improve our local economies by lowering transportation costs,” Mayor Suttle said in a proclamation.
Beginning in the Omaha Plaza, west of the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, the mayors lead cyclists as they biked to work toward their respective city halls. The cyclists then returned to the Bridge.
Download the Mayor’s Bicycle Ride Flyer!
The event kicked-off the 5th Annual Bike Omaha Commuter Challenge, a friendly competition among local businesses and organizations to see who can pedal the most miles to and from work, sponsored by TREK Bicycle Stores of Omaha. Last year, nearly 700 riders logged 130,000 miles over the 14-week period.
View all the photos from today’s event, including Mayor Suttle riding a bike, here.
“This is an exciting way to kick off the Challenge as well as National Bike-to-Work Week, which runs May 17-21,” said Tammie Dodge, project manager for Activate Omaha which is helping promote the event. “With the collaboration of all of our partners, we expect this year’s challenge to bring even more teams to the table.”
One of the Challenge’s new features, said Dodge, is that it will be multi-modal, allowing participants to log bus and car pool miles in addition to bike-to-work miles. The partnership with MAPA’s Metro Rideshare Program and MAT has allowed this new opportunity to take shape.
Those interested in the Challenge may register online.
