Polish your pedals and pump up your tires. The Tahoe Bike Challenge, to work, school, and play, gets underway May 23rd through June 3rd.

The 6th annual Tahoe Bike Challenge, Tahoe’s participation in Bike to Work Month – a national public awareness campaign, is scheduled to run from May 23 to June 3.  The Bike Challenge is a two-week promotion challenging everyone in the Tahoe Basin to ride their bicycle instead of using an automobile while traveling to work, school, recreational sites or running daily errands.

Create a Bike Team
Individuals and groups of friends or co-workers can organize to build a team and participate. In 2009, 700 individuals, 87 company teams and six schools registered online to track their daily trips and miles for a total of 23,000 miles. Each day, participants input their number of riding trips and miles for the day and the online system keeps a running tally of all individuals and teams progress.  Also on a daily basis are random drawings for valuable prizes that include, but are not limited to, lift tickets to Kirkwood and Northstar Bike Parks, bicycle lights, and more.

For Human Resource managers, the Bike Challenge provides an opportunity to help staff establish new personal health objectives and encourage team building activities that can uplift employee morale as they shift from winter to summer activities.

To register and participate as an individual or team, visit www.TahoeBike.org.

Keeping Tahoe Blue & Clear
The Tahoe Bike Challenge is collaboration between the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA), the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition (LTBC) and others in their effort to bring attention to the need for reducing dependence on the automobile for bio-region health and sustainability.  Research has shown that automobile gas emissions are primarily nitrogen and carbon.  In Lake Tahoe, auto generated nitrogen drops from the atmosphere and enters the Lake to become a food source for the growth of algae.  Further research indicates the pulverization of sands on the highway get airborne and fall into the Lake.  These airborne particulates have such low density they don’t readily sink to the Lake’s bottom, but rather stay suspended in the water and contribute to the reduction of water clarity.

For every mile ridden on a bicycle vs. driven in an automobile, 1.9 pounds of CO2 are saved from being emitted into the atmosphere. During the 2009 Tahoe Bike Challenge, 43,700 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) were not emitted into the atmosphere as a result of the event.

Efforts by TRPA, LTBC, Tahoe Metropolitan Planning Organization (TMPO), Tahoe Transportation District and the counties and public agencies surrounding the Lake are working together to build a regional bicycle/pedestrian network connecting neighborhoods, schools, shopping areas and recreational resources.  The Tahoe Bike Challenge helps bring attention to these efforts by encouraging everyone, staff and the public, to ride their bike with a more utilitarian purpose on the existing bikeway system and then provide comment on their experiences – all the while having fun and friendly competition among the agencies.

Bucks 4 Bikes
In addition to the Bike Challenge is a new fundraising program called Bucks 4 Bikes.  It is a program designed to raise dollars for the purchasing of bicycles and helmets for Tahoe’s youth who would otherwise not have the opportunity for independent mobility, a fitness activity, positive socialization with family and friends, and a deepening appreciation for the outdoors.

The Bucks 4 Bike program is in conjunction with the Tahoe Bike Challenge.  To learn more about the program and how to participate in a Pledge or donation program, visit www.tahoebike.org.

The Tahoe Bike Challenge coincides with the National Bike-to-Work Month public awareness campaign to get people out of their cars to reduce air pollution, traffic congestion and increase the benefits to public health.

The Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition, TRPA and event sponsors are working together to help increase public awareness about the value and benefits of helping move the Lake Tahoe region toward a more livable and  sustainable  bioregion - socially, environmentally, and economically. 

Tahoe Bike Month is presented by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition and would not be possible without the support of TMPO, Nevada Department of Transportation, Tahoe Orthopedic Center, Heavenly Mountain Resort, Kirkwood and Northstar Bike Parks, Tahoe TV, and the Tahoe Daily Tribune and Bonanza newspapers.

For more information about the Tahoe Bike Challenge, Bike Day, and Tahoe Bike Month events, visit www.tahoebike.org.