On World Bicycle Day on 3June, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) partnered with Strava to launch a bike challenge called “Your Ride Counts”, encouraging cyclists to use their bikes at least twice a week and opt for a bike instead of a motor vehicle for short journeys.
The results of the challenge surpassed all expectations: between 3 and 30 June, 450,139 participants clocked up 192,202,971.4 km (119,429,389.5 miles). This is equivalent to nearly 4800 times the circumference of the earth!
Sustainability to the fore
The main objective of the “Your Ride Counts” challenge was one of sustainability. And there too, it ticked all the boxes.
By riding more than 190,000,000 km, the participants emitted 4,036 tonnes of CO2. If they had travelled the same distance by car, they would have emitted 52,088 tonnes of CO2. That’s 48,052 tonnes less emissions, the equivalent of driving around the world a little over 3.75 times.
While sustainability efforts should first and foremost focus on reducing emissions, we can also take the figures from a compensation perspective (with a view to carbon neutrality): some 2400 trees would need to be planted to offset the same quantity of emissions saved during the challenge.
Commenting on the results, UCI President David Lappartient said: “The ‘Your Ride Counts’ challenge aimed to encourage people to choose to ride their bike more often and replace motorised journeys with bike trips. The statistics on reduced emissions give plenty of food for thought and further confirm the bicycle’s role in helping to tackle climate change. I sincerely hope that the trend towards choosing the bike for short trips and commutes will continue beyond this challenge.”
This collaboration between the UCI and Strava was also part of the Strava Metro project. Strava has the largest volume of data on human-powered transport on the planet, and its Strava Metro project makes it easier for transport planners to identify specific needs for bike lanes and safe areas for active transport, while exploring local trends in activity. Strava offers public authorities and other actors engaged in active mobility access to anonymised data on the journeys made by its users. The activities recorded during the UCI Strava challenge can therefore help to improve infrastructures for active mobility in participants’ cities and regions.
As part of the collaboration with the UCI, Strava is making such data available free of charge to cities and regions awarded the UCI Bike City label. This label supports and rewards cities and regions which not only host major UCI cycling events but also invest in developing community cycling and related infrastructure and programmes.