HUB held it’s Commuter Challenge, the annual pre-Bike-to-Work-Week event, on Wednesday morning. Thirteen teams (2 from Norco), each member starting at the same time from a common point, timed their trips to Granville and Georgia. A first this year, the person riding a bike led the way for all teams — over distances from 10.4 to 2.4 km (average 5.4 km). Teams left their start point at around 8 a.m. and arrived at the finish line at around 8:30 to 9 am. The heart of rush hour.
Participating teams: Norco Bicycles, Lafarge, Translink, City of Vancouver, Vancouver Coastal Health, Netherlands Consulate, VanCity, The Georgia Straight, Two Wheel Gear, Momentum Magazine, Roundhouse Radio, Bike Doctor.
Check out the results chart: the times and comments for each team are in the order of: bike, car, transit. Also check out a few team photos.
True to national form, the Netherlands Consul General rode in the challenge, and the team used two bikes — one an electric.
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- VanCity
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- Translink
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- Netherlands Consulate
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- Results
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- Two Wheel Gear
Not surprised to see happy commuter cyclists. When I rode to work it was the best few months of my working life.
A few of my colleagues commuted in their work clothes, but they lived downtown so they were only on the bike for a few minutes. The other bike commuters (including me) rode for 25-60 minutes so we’d skip our morning shower at home, get into comfortable cycling clothes, ride to work, and then have a shower and get into work clothes.
I was lucky when I was a bus commuter too. Getting downtown just after rush hour meant having a seat the whole way there. Including my morning shower, the walk to the bus stop, waiting and riding it took almost exactly the same length of time as riding my bike, parking it securely, showering and changing: 45 minutes.
Getting home took noticeably longer by bike (hills!) and the bus was both more crowded and more frequently stuck in traffic.
One day I needed to get home ASAP and my boss paid for me to take a taxi. I was shocked at how little time I actually saved. It makes absolutely no sense to drive downtown to work from this area, yet I know several who do. Of course their cars are worth about 10 times as much as mine so they clearly place an enormous value on personal space.