EMERYVILLE, CA (BRAIN)—Participants in the Clif Bar 2 Mile Challenge avoided more than 43,000 car trips covering almost 385,000 miles during the program’s initial six-month team competition, ending November 1.
The Clif Bar 2 Mile Challenge is a nationwide campaign to fight climate change by encouraging people to ride a bike instead of driving a car for trips two miles or less, according to a press release.
In choosing bikes over cars, participants prevented 353,500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. Car-generated carbon dioxide is one of the leading causes of global climate change.
Friendly competition among cyclists taking the Clif Bar 2 Mile Challenge (http://2milechallenge.com/) also resulted in a $25,000 bonus grant to non-profit Trips for Kids, which opens the world of cycling to at-risk youth through mountain bike rides and Earn-A-Bike programs in the United States, Canada and Israel.
The bonus grant follows $25,000 grants CLIF BAR initially made to each of the three non-profits supported by the 2 Mile Challenge: Alliance for Biking and Walking, Alliance for Climate Education and Trips for Kids.
“People from all 50 states have responded to the 2 Mile Challenge because it’s fun, healthy and gives them a tangible way to battle climate change in their own communities,” said Lauren Hatfield, lifestyle experience manager at Clif Bar & Company. “They also get to do twice the good by supporting non-profits who bring the bike and climate movements to broader audiences nationwide.”
While the Clif Bar 2 Mile Challenge team competition is over for the year—slated to return in Spring 2011—the 2 Mile Challenge remains active for people who to want to continue or join, log bike miles and challenge friends to ride their bikes for short trips two miles or less.
In the U.S., 40 percent of urban trips are two miles or less, and 90 percent of those trips are made by car. If one of 10 car commuters switched to a bike, carbon dioxide emissions would fall by 25.4 million tons per year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
