BOULDER, Colorado (Sept. 22, 2021) — PeopleForBikes, a national bicycling advocacy nonprofit, is proud to announce an ambitious, industrywide campaign highlighting the important role of bicycling in combating climate change. The One Ride at a Time Campaign and the accompanying Great Climate Bike Challenge empower individual riders, businesses and policymakers to choose and incentivize bicycling for short trips to help lend a hand in reducing transportation-related carbon emissions and protecting the planet.
Climate change is on the forefront of elected official’s minds across the U.S. and PeopleForBikes knows that reducing carbon emissions is a large and complex task. In tandem with other solutions, replacing car trips with bike rides can play a significant role in reducing these harmful emissions. To help the bike industry on climate action, PeopleForBikes recently launched their industry Sustainability Working Group, working closely with the Outdoor Industry Association, crowdsourcing best-in-class practices and resources to improve the manufacturing and distribution of bicycles from a climate perspective.
As bike businesses work to make improvements in their supply chain, PeopleForBikes is working with policymakers at the local, state and federal levels to prioritize funding for more and better bike infrastructure and create incentives for people to bike more often through legislation like the E-BIKE Act and the Bicycle Commuter Act.
Climate change is affecting communities across the U.S., and the world, in a myriad of ways — worsening air conditions due to greenhouse gas emissions make outdoor recreation more difficult and decrease quality of life. Loss of recreational trails due to wildfires, erosion and floods means fewer opportunities for Americans to get into the — a proven benefit for boosting mental and physical health.
When people have safe places to ride, and reasons to ride, replacing car trips with bike rides is more attainable for everyday riders. Americans take 1.1 billion trips every day — an average of four trips per citizen. Further, 87% (957 million) of daily trips are taken in personal vehicles, and nearly half of those trips are less
than 3 miles. If 10% of the population were to replace one car trip a day with a bike ride, overall carbon emissions from transportation would drop 10%.
PeopleForBikes is challenging individuals across the U.S. to use their bicycle as a tool to help fight climate change and create a better future on two wheels. Offering three challenges on Ride Spot, PeopleForBikes’ app built to break down the barriers to bicycling, riders can ride to carbon neutral for either their traditional or electric bicycle, and pledge to replace a few car trips a month with bike rides. Every month, PeopleForBikes will tally the total number of miles ridden and the corresponding amount of carbon emissions avoided by participants biking instead of driving.
The Great Climate Bike Challenge pushes individuals to replace short local car trips with bike rides — starting with just a couple trips a week. Someone choosing to replace driving a car with riding a bike just once a day can reduce their personal transportation-related carbon emissions by 67%.
Ride to Carbon Neutral — Traditional Bikes is a Challenge to highlight the mileage needed to offset the carbon emissions tied to the manufacturing of a traditional bicycle. When running local errands by bike, it only takes a total of 319 miles to reach carbon neutral.
Ride to Carbon Neutral — Electric Bicycles demonstrates the ways electric bikes can serve as an alternative to cars by making errands easier, more fun and more convenient. By replacing 508 miles of local trips with an e-bike, people can pedal through their carbon footprint, benefiting their communities and themselves.
Learn more about PeopleForBikes and the One Ride at a Time campaign here.
