Get extra rewards for riding your bike to UCSD in the Campus Bike Challenge. Individuals and teams who log the most bicycle commute miles during Bike to Campus Week, May 12–16, will win prizes, compliments of Rideshare Operations, a program promoting alternative transportation and sustainability within Transportation & Parking Services.

UCSD faculty, staff, undergraduates, and graduate students can compete individually or as a team of 3 or more. Name your team (keep the name "politically correct," please), and designate a team leader as a contact person and log keeper. Then log your miles from your origin of commute — usually your home — to and from campus every day during Bike to Campus Week.

Each team leader must:

• Submit a team roster (Excel) to rideshare@ucsd.edu by Monday, May 12. If your team exceeds the number of slots on the form, copy and paste additional rows into the form.
• Download the mileage log sheet (Excel) from the new UCSD Resources for Bicyclists page (www.ucsd.edu/go/bike).
• Record the commute mileage for each team member on the log each day. See Measuring Your Mileage for tips on figuring mileage accurately.
• E-mail the daily log to rideshare@ucsd.edu by 5 p.m. each day, May 12–16. (Note any revisions to the team on the roster and include it in your daily e-mail.)

Campus Bike Challenge: 3 ways to win

1. Total Team Miles: Each member of the team with the most cumulative miles wins a prize.
2. Team Member Mean Miles: We’ll total your team’s mileage and divide by the number of team members. The team with the highest average weekly mileage per member wins a prize. This lets smaller teams compete against larger ones.
3. Individual Total Miles: Any individual — whether a member of a team or not — can win this category by racking up the greatest number of commuter miles. There is only one winner, and the prize is a Chrome messenger bag, valued at about $130, compliments of Chrome.

Measuring Your Mileage: We encourage you to use an odometer to measure your mileage. In fact, we’ll even help you get one. The first 10 individuals who sign up for the Campus Bike Challenge at the UCSD Bike Shop get a free Cateye Velo odometer, including free installation, compliments of Rideshare.

Don’t have an odometer? You can still calculate your commute mileage. Use Veloroutes to measure the distance from your home (or other origin of commute) to campus. If you take the same route both ways, double the one-way distance to find your round-trip mileage. Team members are responsible for logging their own mileage and giving the information to the team leader every day so the team leader can transmit team reports to Rideshare by 5 p.m.

Though we encourage you to bike wherever you can, the Campus Bike Challenge only recognizes commuter mileage from home or other origin of commute to UC San Diego campuses in Hillcrest or La Jolla.

Campus Bike Challenge winners will be announced Monday, May 19, 2008. Winners can accept their prizes at an award ceremony, to be announced.

Safety notes:

• We encourage you to always bike legally and safely and to wear a helmet. Rideshare offers $20 helmet vouchers, valid at the UCSD Bike Shop. Pick up a voucher at the Rideshare Operations desk at the Transportation & Parking Services office in the Gilman Parking Structure (map). If you buy a helmet with our $20 voucher by May 9, we’ll give you credit for free front and rear lights at the Bike Shop. Supplies are limited.
• Pick up a copy of Bicycle Street Smarts at the Rideshare desk in Gilman Parking Structure (map).
• UCSD requires that you use a front light and a red rear light/ reflector when riding after sundown, as detailed in California Vehicle Code. Campus Bike Challenge participants who come to the May 16 Bike to Campus pit stop, 6–9 a.m. in Lot P406 (map), get a free rear reflector/ flasher, compliments of Rideshare Operations. Supplies are limited, so come early.
• Get your tires pumped and your brakes checked.
• On your commute home on May 16, be especially cautious of potential drunken drivers and those leaving the Sun God festivities.

Questions? Contact Rideshare Operations, (858) 534-7433.