Whether you’re a rider or an employer, whether you’re thinking about trying bike commuting for the first time, or you’re an experienced rider, the Challenge is for you.
WHAT’S NEW THIS YEAR?
First, we’ve shortened and streamlined the registration process. This year, all you need to sign in is your e-mail address and a password.
Second, we’ve blown the Challenge wide open this year so you can see how all teams, organizations, and individuals are stacking up. You can proudly display your number of trips and number of miles to the world right next to your commuter portrait.
If you don’t want Website users on other teams to view your progress, then choose a nickname on the “Edit Profile” page, and check the box next to “Display a nickname instead of my real name.”
Third, we’ve added leagues to the Challenge so that your team can easily see how you’re stacking up next to other locations of your business or other rival agencies. Your team captain can enroll your team in any number of different leagues.
“How do I register my workplace?”
If you are the first person from your workplace to sign up, you will not see your workplace on the list of registered teams, and you’ll have to register it. You’ll then be, by default, the Team Captain (this can be changed later). You will need some basic information about your workplace, including the total number of employees.
As this program is free and can be done on personal time, you should not need official company permission to participate.
“My workplace has multiple locations. How do I register them all?”
If your workplace has multiple locations, it is best that they are each registered as a separate team (and the “total employees” reported for each one should be for that location only) with separate Captains.
“May I still be a Team Captain if my workplace has already been registered?”
If you were hoping to be the Captain at your workplace but someone beat you to it, you can ask them if you can take over. If they agree, they will need to go to their “Manage your Team” page to make that change. If the person registered as your Team Captain is no longer at your workplace, contact us to make the change.
“I work and ride outside of Central Iowa. May I still participate?”
You are welcome to use the site, log trips and make challenges just like everyone else. However, we will not count you in the final results, as the competition is only for Central Iowa businesses. You can call your local bike group and suggest that they buy this Website from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (details below) for a modest price and run their own challenge.
“I work for a non-traditional workplace. May we take part in the Challenge too?”
If you always work from home you can still participate in the challenge by logging your bike trips for meetings, trips to the post office, and other work-related errands. If your community group, farmers’ market, place of worship, book club or social dance would like to participate, contact us to ask how.
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REGISTERING YOURSELF
“How do I register for the Bike Commute Challenge?”
All you need is a working email address. If you do not have Web access at work or during work hours, that is okay. You can log all of your trips weekly or even at the end of the month.
Completing registration
After you started registration, an e-mail was sent to the address you entered with a unique link that will allow you to complete registration and start logging trips. If you entered an invalid e-mail address or if you lost that e-mail, simply re-start registration with a valid e-mail address. If you did not receive that e-mail, check your junk mail box. If you still cannot receive that e-mail, contact us.
“Account Inactive”?
If you try to log in and are told your account is inactive, one of two things might be wrong. First, if you received a confirmation e-mail after registering, click the link contained in it and then complete registration, that needs to happen. If you did not receive a confirmation e-mail, check your junk mail box and if there is no e-mail there from “help@bikemonthioiwa.com”, it may have been rejected by your Internet Service Provider. Contact us and ask us to send you that confirmation email directly.
Deleting a rider
If you are a Team Captain and need to delete a rider from your team roster, you can do so under the “Manage My Team” button.
No Internet access
For employees without computer access, Captains can create accounts for and log trips for those participants.
No e-mail address
Participants can use a private, home e-mail address if they do not have a work e-mail address. Keep in mind that participants may log all of their trips for the week at one time in order to be eligible the weekly prize drawings. Likewise, participants may log their entire month up until two (2) calendar days into the next month in order to be eligible for the monthly prizes.
Multiple workplaces
If you work at multiple workplaces, you can register for both teams and log trips for both teams. Simply use a different e-mail address for each workplace.
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LOGGING TRIPS
Logging in
To log in, enter your BCC User Name and password into the boxes in the upper right-hand corner of the home page. The first time you log in you will be routed to a page explaining your personal home page. When you are ready to continue, click “Go to my home page.”
Logging a commute
To log a commute for today, click the “Quick Log” button to the left of your calendar. To log a commute for a day in the past, click that day.
Changing a non-workday to a workday
If you log a commute on a day you previously specified as a non-workday, we will assume that you worked that day. There is no need to change that day’s status as a non-workday. Simply log a commute for that day.
Changing a workday to a non-workday
If you were sick, took a vacation day, or telecommuted and need to change the status of that day to a non-workday, just click on that day and un-check “I worked.”
Changing your commute mileage
If you took the long way to work one day (or the short way, by combining your bike trip with the bus or driving), you can change your commute mileage for that day by clicking on that day and filling in your true mileage in the form.
To change your default commute mileage, log in and then click on “Edit your profile” in the light blue area of your home page. Enter your correct round-trip commute mileage in the form and hit “Save changes.”
Multiple participants, one computer
Multiple participants using the same computer and browser may find that they are automatically logged-in as one another when they load the website. The browser is saving their login information in a form called “cookies.” To overcome this, the browser can be set to not allow cookies or the browser’s cookies can be cleared on-demand. To find out how to manage cookies on your browser, use your browser’s help menu. You can also just log out, and then log back in with the correct user name.
Telecommuting
If you telecommute to work some days (i.e. work from home), you can report that day as “Did not work,” because you did not have a commute.
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Forgot your password?
Use the “I forgot my password” link at the upper right hand corner of the page. It will email you a link to change your password.
Changing your default mileage
To change your default commute mileage, log in and then click on “Edit your profile” in the light blue area of your home page. Enter your correct round-trip commute mileage in the form and hit “Save changes.”
Changing your name or team
To change your name or your team, log in and then click on “Edit your profile” in the light blue area of your home page. After updating your information in the form, hit “Save changes.”
Changing your default work week
If you want to change your default work week, and you’ve already completed the regisration process for this year, send us an e-mail at help@bikemonthiowa.com. Do understand that this will affect your calendar retroactively, so if most of the month has already passed, you may want to manually update the remaining days that have changed on your trip log rather than making the change for the whole month.
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Initiating a Challenge
You may challenge any BCC participant. To initiate a challenge, log in, and then hit “Challenge another rider” at the bottom of your home page. Select the first letter of your target’s last name, and then select your target’s name from the drop-down list (sorted alphabetically by last name). You can include a note with the Challenge if you like. If you don’t find their name, you can “Invite a friend to join.”
Accepting a Challenge
To accept a Challenge that someone has sent you, click the link (or copy and paste it into your browser) included in the e-mail (sent from “help@bikemonthiowa.com”). The Challenge will now automatically appear in the red area of your home page once you log in.
Rejecting a Challenge
If you do not wish to accept a Challenge, simply ignore the Challenge e-mail. The person who Challenged you does not have access to your e-mail address through the website.
Deleting an existing Challenge
If you are engaged in a Challenge and no longer wish to be, Delete Existing Challenge to request that we delete it. Be sure to specify the names of both challengers.
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STATISTICS AND MATH
Understanding your statistics
The statistics you see on your calendar page for yourself, your challengers, your teammates and all BCC participants apply to that calendar month only. In other words, if it is the last day in June, they will reflect everyone’s performance in the month of June, even if most people only signed up at the very end of the month. They will reset, therefore, on the first day of July, and again in August.
Team Commute Rate is 0%?
If you are a Captain and you see your Team Commute Rate is displaying 0%, that is likely because you have not told us how many employees are at your workplace. Go to “Manage my team” and fill in your workplace data.
How we calculate CO2 emissions saved
As you might imagine, this figure would vary depending on a number of factors, but on average, according to the EPA and the Energy Information Adminstration,
Pounds of avoided CO2 emissions = X miles * 0.98 lbs/mile
Based on a person driving alone in a vehicle getting 20 miles per gallon under commuting (city) conditions.
How we calculate calories expended
Obviously, the number of calories you burn depends on a host of factors unique to each person and ride, so this is definitely an approximation. But based on averages from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, here’s how we do it:
Miles X 49 calories = total calories burned while cycling
The average person weighing 154 lbs bicycling at 12 mph will burn about 49 calories per mile (extrapolated from an approximate rate of 590 cal/hr). Calories burned per hour will be higher for persons weighing more than 154 lbs and lower for persons who weigh less.
Again, this does not take into account hills or the energy efficiency of the bicycle or any other natural weight, strength or gender variations. This also does not account for calories burned while not cycling due to increased overall health or metabolic rate.
For your personal or workplace performance statistics from prior years, contact us.
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Is my email address available to my teammates?
Your e-mail address is not available or visible to any other BCC participants other than your Team Captain until you respond to a message from them. Participants may send one another individual messages, and Captains may message their entire team at once, but your e-mail address is never visible to teammates sending you messages through the site, unless you respond.
Is my profile visible to others?
Your public profile is visible to everyone, and your real name is visible to your teammates. If you don’t want Website users on other teams to be able to view your progress, then choose a nickname on the “Edit Profile” page, and check the box next to “Display a nickname instead of my real name.”
Encryption
Because there is no secure personal information or financial information involved in the BCC, data sent to and from the BCC Website is not encrypted.
How will the Collective use my e-mail address?
We will use your email address to keep you informed about the current month-long Challenge (weekly ride updates), to ask you at the end of the Challenge to become a Collective member, and to announce the beginning of next year’s Challenge. We will not sell your e-mail address.
Why is the Collective asking for my address and phone number?
The Des Moines Bicycle Collective is providing the option for BCC participants to provide their address and phone number and requiring that all participants provide a home zip code. Zip codes may be used along with workplace addresses to map generally where folks are biking. If such mapping occurs, no one will have the capability to view your personal information.
We may use your address or phone number to contact you regarding transportation plans that affect your neighborhood or to share other opportunites to get involved with the Collective. We will not sell, share, or trade your information with anyone else.
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CAPTAINS
Contacting your captain
To contact your team captain, click on their name in the list of My Team Riders area under your personal trip calendar.
Changing captains
If you no longer want to be captain of your team, please find a replacement captain, make sure that person is registered on your team, and then choose their name in the drop down “Captain” menu on your “Manage My Team” page.
Emailing your team
Captains have the ability to e-mail their teams (other participants can only send messages to one teammate at a time). To e-mail your team, use the button in the Team Admin area of your personal page that says “Send a message to your team.”
Be careful not to e-mail your team too much. Most people will not want to receive messages from you more than once a week. When in doubt, you can create an “opt-in” list by e-mailing your team once and asking that anyone who is interested in receiving e-mail updates from you reply and say so.
Your team will automatically receive a weekly email from the Collective about the program and a final email in June announcing the results.
Adding and deleting riders
To delete a rider, hit the “Manage My Team” button. You can then view a list of team members and delete as needed. If you need to delete a profile for one rider who has multiple profiles, you can view their last log-in date in order to judge which is the out-of-date profile.
To add a rider, “Invite a friend” and enter the person’s e-mail address. Tell them to join your team at registration.
Editing your company profile
Captains can change the name, address and category of their company team and can adjust the number of employees at their company using the “Manage your team” button in Team Admin area of the personal page.
Exporting team data
Captains can export team data using a link available on their Manage page, through the “Manage your team” button in the light-blue Team Admin area of the personal page.
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SUPPORTED BROWSERS and TECHNOLOGY
Web browsers
BikeCommuteChallenge.com is designed to work on all modern browsers: Internet Explorer v.6 and v.7; Firefox; Safari v.2 and v.3; and Camino; both Mac and PC. If you’re getting strange results, and you have javascript turned on (see below), you may want to upgrade the version of your browser.
Is javascript required?
Javascript is required. The site will probably work without it, but your experience will be dramatically improved if you turn it on.
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CONTACT US
If these resources don’t help you, contact the BCC web team:help@BikeMonthIowa.com
If, after contacting us, you resolve your problem independently, you can e-mail us again and say “problem solved” to retract your request.