Bangalore Bikers commute challenge

[vinay shankara]

For the past 7 months, a bunch of enthusiastic riders from Infosys cycling club have been competing with many other US organisations in the Bike Commute Challenge. What started with only a dozen riders from Bangalore in the month of march, now has 120 riders signed up from many other locations across India:). 

Our Key achievements so far - 

1. Team photo posted on BTAOregon website (parent organisation of BikeCommuteChallenge.com) - http://btaoregon.org/2013/05/bike-commute-challenge-team-photo-from-bangalore/
2. Top most leaders of Infosys have applauded the bike commuters and have offered to provide full support. 
   
3. Last month which was BTA's bike to work month, we stood 16th in the global organisation standing. :) 
   

Here is the stats of our organisation during the September Bike to work month - 

Total riders - 120
Riders with commute rate of 80% or more - 30+ riders

Total Trips - 870
Total distance - 11700 kms
Total Teams - 5 (Mysore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune & Trivandrum)
Total CO2 emission saved - 3.5 tons
Total calories burnt - millions 
Ranking in global organisation standing - 16

Now we want to take this to the next level. 

So how about starting commute challenge here in Bangalore?

We have BBCH, Brevets and other events that are held over weekend to bring in the competitive spirit amongst riders. But the commute challenge will make the daily commute more fun and interesting for all the thousands of riders who commute to work on a daily basis.

Here is what we are hoping to achieve with this challenge -

1. Make bike to work more fun and interesting.
2. Bring in some competitive spirit amongst daily commuters.
3. Stay self-motivated and also motivate/inspire others.
4. Bring in some visibility for Bike commuters. There is a lot of visibility for all the events that happens during weekends like Brevets, BBCH etc. But there are a lot of people who commute to work (40+ kms) and do not take part in any of the weekend activities. So this is a way of identifying and appreciating such avid cyclists.
5. Collect statistics on how many people bike to work regularly which could potentially be used to push for bicycle friendly policies or infrastructure.
6. Long term vision is to conduct Bike to work competition (the way it happens in most part of US) on a particular month every year.

Here is a doc that i created with the sign up instructions and FAQs. 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-LZJFs9KEkPdGJ4Xy02ckFhcWs/edit?usp=sharing

Once you have created a team or joined a team, please join the Bangalore bikers league. This helps to keep track of how other teams/organisations are doing.

http://bikecommutechallenge.com/league/156/bangalore-bikers/

Looking forward to competing with other organisations/individuals based in Bangalore. :)

Regards,

Vinay Shankara

[Arvind P]

16th? super!!!

[vinay shankara]

Here is the screenshot of the organisation standing taken one day before the month ended.

Here is an inspirational video by "CH2M Hill" that finished 19th in the org standing ( last one in the above screenshot)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26bbJdfiMp0

This video depicts how serious few companies are about bike commuting.

[anil s kadsur]

Vinay,

Awesome buddy!!!

Very commendable job, I know it is just the beginning only can get better from here.

Knowing the traffic mess and no of employees here that day is not very far where your org will become the no 1 in the world.

very truly,
anil s kadsur
http://kadsur.blogspot.in/

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From: vinay shankara <vini...@gmail.com>

Sender: bangalor...@googlegroups.com

Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2013 09:33:40 -0700 (PDT)

To: <bangalor...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: [BBC] Bangalore Bikers commute challenge

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[Chidambaran Subramanian]

100000+ employees and 120 riders, why am I not getting excited? While I am not devaluing your efforts, most of the employees from our LBSs cycle to work every day, and there are smaller organizations where people commute daily. I think the number should indicate relative strength, meaning if 10  people ride in a company of 40, that is much more worthy than 120 riders in a gargantuan organization like Infosys.

[Shyam Sundar S Iyer]

Well said Chidambaran!

Last couple of years I was in an organisation which had about 40 employees (including a CEO, COO, CFO, blah blah) I saw to that atleast there are 6 people who started biking to work.

 

"Big Organisations" plying such big buses and polluting the whole city....should wash away their sins by giving bicycle to emplyoees and bring in as a "Code of Conduct" to bike altleast 3 days to office!

Instead they use hypes to gain branding!

[Ashok Kumar]

We have 25 employees in india and 3 of us come by cycles, and I'm about to succeed in getting couple of more guys. May be the percentage is significant in my office!!! ;)

Thanks and regards,

Ashok. 

Sent from my iPhone

[anil s kadsur]

Chiddu,

You are right.

Let me share one of my experiences a year back I happen to meet an employee from the same org. He use to stay close to 7 kms from infosys, and his work time is from 11 am. He only shared this info with me, he won't get car parking space at that time.

He has bought a bicycle and he commutes, I was bit excited a common topic cycling, I started cycling topic to establish better rapport. He was very reluctant to talk about bicycles. He openly declared he don't like it, he says I don't have a choice. I stopped there, this is the mentality many a times. I don't have to talk about pluses of cycling here, with this kind of attitude it would take really some time before it happens.

very truly,
anil s kadsur
http://kadsur.blogspot.in/

---

From: Chidambaran Subramanian <chi...@gmail.com>

Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2013 11:31:58 +0530

To: anil kadsur<anilk...@gmail.com>

Cc: vinay shankara<vini...@gmail.com>; BBC<bangalor...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [BBC] Bangalore Bikers commute challenge

[vinay shankara]

I totally agree with you Chiddu.  However there are several reasons why the strength is not good.

1. Unfortunately a lot of people have the perception that cycling is not safe. This is one of the thing we are trying to prove wrong with the data collected from this challenge.

2. Most of our offices are located far from the city. :( So not everyone can cycle. 

3. company is providing good bus transportation which is the most feasible mode of transportation. As per record, out of 18000 employees, 16,000 employees in bangalore use company bus. We are not trying to target the bus users, We are trying to convert car/motor bike users to bike users. 

4. Not all people who cycle to work have signed up to this. I guess still there are some 30 to 40% of people who are unaware of this challenge. We are trying to organize expos and other events to create awareness.

5. Unfortunately, company is not encouraging/promoting cycling. Like many other big Indian companies, even they think cycling is not safe. They do not want to be liable in case of any accident and hence they are playing safe.

One of the main reason I'm calling other teams/organisations to also sign up is to collect some data . We claim that Bangalore is the Bicycle capital of India, but do we know how many people cycle to work and how many are just weekend riders and how many are just letting their cycle rot in the shed? Once all organisations and all riders sign up we should have some good stats with which we can motivate/inspire many others to also take up cycling to work more seriously.

This challenge has helped lot of our riders to ride more regularly. A lot of people (incl me) commuted all days last month inspite of rains. But yeah... we really have a long way to go.

From next month on most of the US riders will stop riding due to rain/snow. So in order to keep the competition alive and also more meaningful, we need more and more teams from Bangalore sign up for this.

Regards,

Vinay S

[vinay shankara]

Thats great Ashok! Please do sign up. :)

[anil s kadsur]

"Like many other big Indian companies, even they think cycling is not safe. They do not want to be liable in case of any accident and hence they are playing safe."

Will they take ownership/liability for an accident in a car or motor bike!!!

very truly,
anil s kadsur
http://kadsur.blogspot.in/

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From: vinay shankara <vini...@gmail.com>

Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2013 00:09:55 -0700 (PDT)

To: <bangalor...@googlegroups.com>

Cc: anil kadsur<anilk...@gmail.com>; vinay shankara<vini...@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: [BBC] Bangalore Bikers commute challenge

[vinay shankara]

Hi Shyam,

I do not agree to your last statement. One thing we should all keep in mind is that Public transportation is one of the sustainable and feasible mode of transportation. Cycling is the most sustainable and green mode of commute but not feasible for a lot of people. 

Its good to know that you were able to get 6 people to cycle to work in a company of 40. But why i feel its easy to pull people to cycling world in a small organisation which doesn't provide company transportation. And  If the employees stay close by, its even easier. 

Regards,

Vinay S

[vinay shankara]

Anil,

Company doesn't promote car/motor bike either. That's what they claim atleast. :) Well i guess if someone meets with an accident while commuting to work, the company will be liable to some extent. I'm not sure about this, but thats how the HR Head sounded when we asked her for more support. 

As I said, a lot lot lot of people think cycling is not safe including senior leadership. :( 

Regards,

Vinay S

[anil s kadsur]

Vinay,

True, it is a over all perception...

very truly,
anil s kadsur
http://kadsur.blogspot.in/

---

From: vinay shankara <vini...@gmail.com>

Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2013 00:33:10 -0700 (PDT)

To: <bangalor...@googlegroups.com>

Cc: vinay shankara<vini...@gmail.com>; <anilk...@gmail.com>

[Arvind P R]

In most big companies employees insurance covers accident inside the workplace and accidents which occur on the road when the employee travels to n fro from work.
So probably HR thinks cycling to work might be outside the insurance clause.
In either case I dont know how this is implemented.
Arvind

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[Sunil Raghavan]

Interesting list. So the Dutch take cycle commutes for granted and don't bother to sign up for these things... Cities full of those folks don't figure out here...

[Opendro]

Interesting! This sounds more like the handful of people who update in dailymile. People find ways to get amused :) Sorry for sounding critical. But I neither see a competition nor fun in it. And we will never get the statistics closer to real world data.

On Wednesday, October 2, 2013 10:03:40 PM UTC+5:30, vinay shankara wrote:

[vinay shankara]

Opendro, 

This is very much similar to Dailymile. Infact we had considered Daily mile as well before freezing BikeCommuteChallenge.com. People use Dailymile to track even weekend/leisure trips or non commute trips. Thats the main reason we decided to go with BikeCommuteChallenge.com which is only meant to track office commute trips. In this website, we can issue challenge with other individuals or other teams, start leagues and so on. This might not amuse you, because bike commuting is a daily affair for you. :) 1000 kms Brevet itself might not amuse you anymore. :P 

This challenge has really amused many of our riders and even our leadership. Many people have started riding more regularly because of this competition. 

This ofcourse will be no closer to real world data. But something is always better than nothing. :)

BTW i follow posts of your's and many others and you are one of them whom i admire. I really mean it. You are the only one whom i know have done 1000 kms brevet and also have completed 100 kms Bangalore ultra.

Regards,

Vinay S

[Opendro]

Last part is too flattering! :-D

Yeah, you can accusethat I'm generally critical of anything that demands appreciation for what one is supposed to do for his own good. Even my wife does not like this attitude of mine :(

But then, if it works for many people, I rather keep quiet!

[Shyam Sundar S Iyer]

I figured out how people can do the centuries and tons.....its their "Free Mind" and  sheer abilty to "free their mind".

 

That's why he is called "Open".......

Pl take my lines "on the ligher side"

 

Cheers

Shyam