I've always been reluctant to jump on a corporate bandwagon to support a cause, but this one makes so much sense that I think it deserves recognition.
It's the 2-Mile Challenge sponsored by Clif Bar. Essentially, it encourages people to ride their bicycles instead of drive their cars on trips within a radius of 2 miles from home, which accounts for 40% of all urban travel.
According to a video on the 2-Mile Challenge website, if 1 million people replaced a 2-mile car trip with a bicycle ride once a week, carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced by 50,000 tons per year.
Errands by bike
This is something that I've unintentionally been doing for the past few years.
Since my other jobs are freelance writing and parenting, I don't have the opportunity to commute to work by bicycle. Instead, I run all my errands during the day by bicycle.
Mostly that entails daily bike trips to a grocery store with by backpack. For bigger shopping days, I'll throw on my trailer. There's a small grocery just a half-mile from my house and larger shopping centers with Safeways, QFCs, video stores, coffee shops, even department stores within a 4-mile round trip bike ride.
I started doing it just to get a few more rides in every week. This past year, I'll just carry the backpack with me on bike rides and swing by a food store on the way home.
Map
On the Clif Bar 2-mile Challenge website, you can create a 2-mile radius map. Check it out. How many of your frequent trips lie within that circle? Maybe you can cut out a couple of car trips a week.
Until I was knocked off my bike by recent surgery, I'd been making all my solo trips by bike, even ones out of a 2-mile radius. I've replaced the bike with my own two feet for those shorter trips recently.
When I get back on the bike, my big challenge will be to include other members of the family in the 2-mile Challenge.
Carbon footprint calculator at Inconvenient Truth website.
How a gallon of gasoline creates 20 pounds of carbon dioxide
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