Can you handle the Atlanta Bike Challenge? Well, can you?
There are prizes!
The Atlanta Bike Challenge, a new metro area bicycling program, is making a simple offer to our car-addicted metropolis: Try it and you might like it. Oh, and you might win a prize, too.
More than 1,000 people have already signed up for the Bike Challenge, which runs Sept. 28 through Oct. 10. It will offer various events where participants can try pedaling in safe, low-pressure places. All you have to do to participate is register for free and agree to ride a bike for more than 10 minutes.
Prizes include free movie tickets for any participant who hasn’t ridden a bike in at least a year. Businesses can compete for bigger prizes by signing up employees to bike-commute - which is the program’s major goal. Don’t own a bike? The Bike Challenge will loan you one for free at various events, including Atlanta Streets Alive on Sept. 28.
The program covers most metro Atlanta counties. One event is a police-escorted bike ride between Georgia Gwinnett College and downtown Lawrenceville on Oct. 10.
The Atlanta Bike Challenge is the first U.S. edition of a U.K.-based program called Love to Ride, which uses similar positive reinforcement and friend-making to boost bike riding. Operated by an organization called Challenge for Change, Love to Ride has been a success in such places as London and Sydney, Australia.
The Atlanta version came about after an Atlanta Bicycle Coalition staffer met a Challenge for Change executive at a conference. The Atlanta program is on track to be the biggest one yet, according to organizer Johann Weber, with more than 3,000 participants expected.
The Bike Challenge is supported by Georgia Commute Options and the Atlanta Regional Commission, along with the national organization People for Bikes.
For registration and more info, see the Bike Challenge website here.