A team of City Council bike riders, led by council member Mike O’Brien (left) are beating Mayor Mike McGinn’s office in May’s Bike to Work Month challenge, but McGinn’s office has argued that because so many of the mayor’s employees live close to where they work, the challenge should be measured in trips, not miles.
Here are the raw numbers:
During the final week of May, the council’s 12-member team had ridden 603 miles total, compared to 317 miles for the mayor’s 10-member team. Per rider, the council’s team rode an average of 52 miles, compared to 32 miles on average for the mayor’s team. In terms of trips, the two teams were, indeed, in a dead heat—7 one-way trips per rider for the council’s team versus 7.3 one-way trips per rider for the mayor’s. However, it should be noted that O’Brien’s original challenge was for miles, not trips—making the council team the clear winner in their final-week Bike-to-Work-Month challenge.
