The Steamboat Pilot & Today: Initiative offers up 1,000 bikes for DNC visitors

Contribute

DNC 2008

Stay tuned to www.steamboatpilot.com throughout the week for extended coverage of the Democratic National Convention.

Pilot & Today City Editor Mike Lawrence and reporter Brandon Gee are covering the convention from Denver. They will report on issues pertinent to Northwest Colorado, touch base with Colorado Democratic leaders and chronicle Denver’s convention buzz in articles, photos and audio interviews.

Californian Brian Petrich, who is in Denver following the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, said he had logged 150 miles on free bikes offered downtown by Thursday morning. Photo by Mike Lawrence

Cycling stats

■ The United States could save 462 million gallons of gasoline a year by increasing cycling from 1 percent to 1.5 percent of all trips.

■ On a commute of 10 miles, bicyclists save roughly $7.50 and spare the air half a pound of carbon monoxide emissions. It also burns 350 calories.

■ Just three hours of bicycling per week can reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke by 50 percent.

■ The annual operating cost of a bike is just 2.5 percent that of a car.

■ A person who bikes four miles round trip to work instead of driving keeps 51 pounds of carbon monoxide out of the air each year and burns 36,000 calories — the equivalent of 10 pounds of fat.

Source: Humana

In the words of the Edgar Winter Group, an initiative in Denver this week is inviting visitors to the 2008 Democratic National Convention to, “Come on, and take a free ride.”

“It’s been great,” Californian Brian Petrich said while checking out a bike from a Freewheelin station near the Colorado Convention Center at 14th and Stout streets Thursday morning. “I probably have the highest mileage of anybody on a bike.”

Petrich is one of many visitors this week whose first stop every morning of the Democratic National Convention is to one of seven Freewheelin stations throughout downtown Denver.

“Freewheelin is a bike-sharing initiative to bring 1,000 bicycles

to the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention (next week in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn.),” said Mitch Lubitz, spokesman for Fortune 500 health benefits company Humana. “We really believe strongly in wellness and fitness.”

Bikes were available free of charge to convention visitors, beginning at 7 a.m., as long as they are returned by 7 p.m. The initiative is the joint effort of Humana and the Bikes Belong Coalition, an American bicycle industry group.

“It was a perfect match for this kind of national level stage,” Lubitz said.

Petrich, who is in Denver following the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, already had logged 150 miles this week. The influx of visitors, road closures, protests and other impacts of the convention often have meant gridlocked traffic in downtown Denver this week, making cycling Petrich’s preferred means of conveyance.

“The city’s pretty much one lane in, one lane out,” he said. “On a bike, it’s like all lanes are open. Plus the cops don’t mess with you.”

Computer equipment on each bike has tracked the success of the Freewheelin initiative. From Monday through Wednesday, Lubitz said, bikes had been checked out 4,300 times and ridden 18,500 miles. Riders from 23 countries and 49 U.S. states burned 575,000 calories, Lubitz said, and reduced carbon emissions by 6.5 metric tons.

While the initiative officially ended Thursday with the convention, Lubitz said Humana’s goal is to leave an enduring legacy.

“We’re going to leave 70 bikes behind in both Denver and the Twin Cities to establish local bike-sharing programs,” Lubitz said.

Should such programs take off, they would join established and sustained programs in European cities such as Berlin, Rome and Paris; developing programs in U.S. cities such as New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Boston; and programs on various corporate, government and university campuses.

Try the Steamboat Pilot & Today for 45 days FREE
Click here for details or call 970-871-4232