2013 BTWW Golden Helmet Award Winners
Miles biked : 2984
Workplaces Represented : 14
Participating Riders : 83
Thank you to all the Bike To Worship and Bike To Work Week participants who logged their trips this year, even if your company wasn’t competing for any of the BTWW Coveted Golden Awards. The 2013 winners of Coveted Golden Helmet Award winners are:
Bike To Worship – Great River Vineyard Church captured the top spot this year with 21.7% participation, followed by Unitarian Universalist, La Crosse(17.4%), and Viroqua Church of Christ(13.2)%.
Most Participants – With 18 participants, Onalaska School District topped last year’s leader, Trane(14), this year. SAP, also with 14 participants, but with less mileage, came in 3rd.
Highest Percentage of Participants with over 100 employees – For the 6th straight year, SAP earned another Golden Helmet award for 10% participation. Onalaska School District came in 2nd with 5% participation, and Dairyland Power Cooperative came in 3rd with 3% participation.
Highest Percentage of Participants with 100 employees or less – Blue Heron Bicycles again came at the top with 100% participation and 114 total miles.
Most Miles – Trane again was the leader this year with 776 total miles, and then runners up Onalaska School District with 686 total miles, and Dairyland Power Cooperative with 254 total miles.
The final results of other participants can be viewed below at the end of this post.
Bike To Work Week has ended, but hopefully it will continue throughout the year for your company. If you would like to have your company participate and be more competitive next year, now is the time to start thinking and preparing your workplace to build a better bicycle culture. Contact the DRBC with help on getting ideas to make your workplace a more bicycle friendly business.
Do you have any ideas on how to improve our mileage tracker, or the awards categories. Please leave a comment below. We also invite you to help with next year’s Bike To Work Week.
### Final Results ###
Bike To Worship
| Congregation |
Attendees |
Riders |
% |
| Great River Vineyard Church (1st place) |
69 |
15 |
21.7% |
| Unitarian Universalist, La Crosse |
86 |
15 |
17.4% |
| Viroqua church of Christ |
167 |
22 |
13.2% |
| First Presbyterian Church of La Crosse |
168 |
21 |
12.5% |
| Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Tomah |
262 |
10 |
3.8% |
| English Lutheran Church |
491 |
6 |
1.2% |
Miles Per Company
| Company | Total Miles |
|---|---|
| Trane | 776 |
| Onalaska School District | 686 |
| Dairyland Power Cooperative | 254 |
| SAP | 206 |
| Reinhart FoodService | 204 |
| LB White Company, Inc. | 194 |
| Gundersen Health Systems | 189 |
| Western | 183 |
| Blue Heron Bicycle Works | 114 |
| People’s Food Co-op | 60 |
| TCI | 42 |
| City of Onalaska | 34 |
| La Crosse School District | 23 |
| La Crosse County Library | 12 |
Participants Per Company
| Company | Participants |
|---|---|
| Onalaska School District | 18 |
| SAP | 14 |
| Trane | 14 |
| Gundersen Health Systems | 11 |
| Dairyland Power Cooperative | 9 |
| Reinhart FoodService | 6 |
| Western | 4 |
| LB White Company, Inc. | 2 |
| La Crosse County Library | 1 |
| City of Onalaska | 1 |
| Blue Heron Bicycle Works | 1 |
| TCI | 1 |
| People’s Food Co-op | 1 |
| La Crosse School District | 1 |
Thu Morning : Ride the 2013 BTWW Tour de Java
Are you a morning person? Do you like bicycling? Do you like coffee? I mean lots of coffee? If you said yes to all of the above questions, then we want you to be part of the Tour de Java ride.
Although it’s not an official Bike-To-Work-Week event, it does take advantage of the great free coffee that’s provided by our wonderful BTWW coffeehouse sponsors.
The tour started about four years ago by a couple downtown bike commuters who wanted to have some extra fun during BTWW, and they would now like more cyclists to join them this year. The ride is simple: ride to a coffeehouse, have a cup of coffee, enjoy some conversation, ride to the next coffeehouse together.
Below is the schedule of stops they plan to make…join them at the beginning, or hop in at any of the stages; leave for work whenever you need to. Some helpful advice – bring your own travel mug which you can easily carry between stops.
Thu Morning Stages:
- Moka on West Ave – 5:30 AM – 5:50 AM
- Jade Café – 6:00 AM
- Bean Juice – 6:30 AM
- McCaffrey’s Coffee – 7:00 AM
- The Root Note – 7:30 AM
- Jules – 8:00 AM
- River Rock Coffee – 8:30 AM
A successful Tour de Java
If you can’t join their tour, just do your own tour with some of your neighbors, friends, or coworkers. Be sure to do it before the end of BTWW this Friday, and please thank the coffeehouses for their support of Bike To Work Week.
Bike To Work Week Events for Wed., May 15
Bicycles parked outside a restaurant
An eventful day is planned for Wednesday Bike-To-Work-Week so be sure to get some rest tonight so you can join us at the La Crosse YMCA commuter station in the morning, and then after work, have some fun riding in our casual group rides in La Crosse and Onalaska. At either event, you’ll have a chance to make some new friends, or reconnect with some old ones.
For kids, ride to school on the La Crescent Bike Train with host Mayor Mike Mike Poellinger. And for Holmen kids, please attend the Bike Rodeo at Viking Elementary School.
Click here for a full listing of BTWW events and details.
2013 Bike To Work Week (May 11 – 17)
At the DRBC, our favorite time of the year is Bike To Work Week. Through out the winter, we plan and schedule events with the goal of getting more people, organizations, businesses, and communities involved. During that week, we encourage people to ride their bikes to work and register their mileage, and to participate with their families and friends in various bicycle rodeos and group rides.
Bicycle rodeos are fun events to teach children to ride safely, and our group rides are casual neighborhood rides, both of which are a great way to meet others in our cycling community. Even if you can’t make any of the group rides, we encourage you to get a group of your friends, neighbors, or co-workers to do your own ride together to work, or your favorite social establishment and discover how fun it can be.
2012 BTWW Golden Helmet Award Winners
Miles biked : 6093
Workplaces Represented : 18
Participating Riders : 169
Thank you to all the participants who logged their commute miles even if their company was not competing. The 2012 Bike To Work Week Coveted Golden Helmet Awards are:
Bike To Worship Golden Helmet was awarded again to First Presbyterian
Most Participants – Trane Co. won their 3rd straight Golden Helmet with 39 participants and 1703 miles. Gundersen Lutheran, the runner-up, had 31 participants and 779 miles.
Highest Percentage of Participants with over 100 employees – For the 5th straight year, SAP earned another Golden Helmet award for 12% participation and 511 miles. Onalaska School District, the runner-up, had a strong showing of 6% participation and 751 miles.
Highest Percentage of Participants with 100 employees or less – a new recipient this year is Blue Heron Bicycle Works with 100% participation and 84 miles. The final results of other competitors can be view at the end of this post.
If you want your workplace to compete for next year’s BTWW Golden Helmet Awards, now is the time to start preparing. You can consult the DRBC for ideas and resources on how to make your workplace more bicycle friendly, or you can also view the resources at the League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Friendly Business page. Then brainstorm and discuss ideas with your staff on leadership, incentives and facilities to implement which would encourage more of your staff to bike commute to work. Building your workplace bike commuting culture throughout the year ensures that next year’s DRBC Bike To Work Week is just another regular bike to work week.
### Final Results ###
Miles Per Company:
| Company | Total Miles |
|---|---|
| Trane | 1703 |
| Gundersen Lutheran | 789 |
| Onalaska School District | 775 |
| Dairyland Power Cooperative | 597 |
| SAP | 511 |
| La Crosse School District | 464 |
| Western Technical College | 368 |
| LB White Company, Inc. | 270 |
| 204 | |
| People’s Food Co-op | 155 |
| Blue Heron Bicycle Works | 84 |
| W.A. Roosevelt Co. | 48 |
| TCI | 45 |
| WI-DNR | 30 |
| City of Onalaska | 28 |
| Orange Computer Solutions | 10 |
| 7 Rivers Alliance | 9 |
| La Crosse County | 4 |
Particpants Per Company:
| Company | Participants |
|---|---|
| Trane | 39 |
| Gundersen Lutheran | 31 |
| Onalaska School District | 25 |
| SAP | 18 |
| Dairyland Power Cooperative | 14 |
| La Crosse School District | 10 |
| Western Technical College | 8 |
| ’No Company Specified’ | 6 |
| People’s Food Co-op | 3 |
| LB White Company, Inc. | 3 |
| Blue Heron Bicycle Works | 2 |
| City of Onalaska | 2 |
| Orange Computer Solutions | 1 |
| 7 Rivers Alliance | 1 |
| TCI | 1 |
| La Crosse County | 1 |
| W.A. Roosevelt Co. | 1 |
| WI-DNR | 1 |
BTWW Mileage Midweek Report and 2012 ‘Coveted’ Golden Helmet Awards
Great job bike commuters, there are over 100 Driftless Region Bike To Work Week commuters logging their commute miles on the DRBC mileage tracker, totaling over 2000 miles to date. If you have not yet logged your BTWW miles, log them here. Logging your miles, no matter how small, contributes to the total Bike To Work Week mileage and lets local people, governments, businesses, and organizations realize how bike commuters impact the region.
This is our 5th year awarding the ‘Coveted’ Golden Helmet Awards, comprising of four categories: 1) Bike To Worship – highest participation, 2) Most Participants, 3) Highest % Participants with companies over 100 employees, 4) Highest % Participants with companies 100 employees or less. The tie-breaker in all categories is total mileage. It’s still not too late for your company to participate! For example, if you have 101 employees in your company, and 1/2 of them rode their bikes to work, and logged their mileage on Fri., before 5 PM, your company would most likely win a ‘Coveted’ Golden Helmet Award. It’s a good thing your company still has three days remaining to pull off an upset of the perennial ‘Coveted’ Golden Helmet Award Winners: SAP, Trane, and Downtown Mainstreet, Inc. Look at the leaderboards below and see if you can motivate more of your colleagues to ride their bike to work.
Total miles recorded per company:
| Company | Total Miles |
|---|---|
| Trane | 733 |
| Gundersen Lutheran | 395 |
| SAP | 233 |
| Western Technical College | 214 |
| La Crosse School District | 134 |
| LB White Company, Inc. | 123 |
| Onalaska School District | 113 |
| Dairyland Power Cooperative | 103 |
Participants per company:
| Company | Participants |
|---|---|
| Trane | 28 |
| Gundersen Lutheran | 22 |
| SAP | 15 |
| Onalaska School District | 8 |
| La Crosse School District | 6 |
| Dairyland Power Cooperative | 4 |
| Western Technical College | 4 |
| ’No Company’ | 4 |
| City of Onalaska | 2 |
If you believe your company results should be higher, make sure you’ve registered a company with your user account. Or please contact info@driftlessbicycle.org for any other issues with the mileage tracker.
Finally, it seems the same companies win the ‘Coveted’ Golden Helmet award every year. Are the Golden Helmets not coveted enough except by these companies? Would the Golden Helmets be more coveted if they looked like the one below?
Future 'Coveted' Golden Helmet Award?
Log Your BTWW Miles
The DRBC Bike To Work Week started last Sat., May 12th, and celebrated its opening yesterday evening at the BTWW opening celebration at Myrick Park. Besides getting free great coffee, one of my other favorite BTWW activities I enjoy participating in is logging the miles I ride to or from work on the DRBC BTWW mileage tracker. You can log your own miles here.
You can interpret the BTWW total mileage in different ways: 1) How well is the DRBC doing in promoting BTWW, 2) How much less carbon is being produced by riding a bike to work, 3) How much money is saved from not driving a car, 4) Are the local municipalities improving its bicycle infrastructure and facilities to make it easier to commute to work, 5) Are businesses encouraging employees to ride to work, 6) How much arm twisting and prize incentives did we do to get people to log their commute miles? 
Did you know that riding a bicycle 1 mile is approximately 1 pound of CO2 emissions saved? I never really paid attention to what a pound of CO2 looked like until I read somewhere that it was equivalent to a 2.5 ft stability exercise ball.
Any way you look at the BTWW miles, I always enjoy seeing an improvement from previous years. In 2010, bike commuters logged 5430 miles, in 2011 – 5746 miles. In 2012, let’s see if we can reach 7500 miles or 7500 stability exercise balls.
Be sure to make your mileage entries by 5 PM. Fri., May 18th so we can compile and present them at the BTWW Closing celebration at Cameron Park.
1 lb CO2 would fill up a 2.5 ft diameter stability exercise ball
Updated for 2012
The full 2012 Bike To Work Week schedules and information have now been posted. As in the past, BTWW continues to have its regular events such as Bike To Coffee, Bike To Worship, Coveted Golden Helmet Awards, Neighborhood Bike Tours, and Rides with the Mayor. Each year, however, we strive to improve our efforts in getting more people throughout the region to Bike To Work. Be sure to check out the BTWW events for Onalaska, Holmen, and La Crescent.
Especially mark your calendars for the Bike To Work Week Opening Celebration at Myrick Park on Sunday, May 13th 4-8 PM. Bring a picnic on your bike and enjoy live music. Then, after you’ve enjoyed all the BTWW events throughout the week, plan on joining us at the Bike To Work Week Closing Celebration at Cameron Park, May 18th 5-7 PM. We’ll again have door-prizes, root-beer floats and organic fruit, music by Grand Picnic, and “Coveted” Golden Helmet Awards presentation at 6 PM.
2011 Golden Helmet Winners and Wrap Up
Checking out the Golden Helmet Awards and prizes at the closing.
Wow! What a great Bike to Work Week it turned out to be. The weather other than a little bit of wind was spot on, perfect for bicycling. This year’s event saw an increase in participation, if not a large surge in miles recorded, but we still did manage to pull ahead of last year’s total miles at the end logging a total of 5,746 miles. There was a bit of competition for some people’s attention in the mileage recording area, which we think might have confused some people.
The kick off at Myrick Park this year was great fun, even if it was not actually in Myrick. There was a bit of a mix up with the shelter reservations, but even though it might have made attendance a bit lower than expected, everyone had a great time! Also of note this year was the new rides with local Mayors. The Mayors of La Crescent, La Crosse and once again Onalaska all hosted rides with community members. If you can, these are always a great event to attend, maybe next year? Also the neighborhood rides led by Eric Wheeler and our Bike Rodeo hosted by the La Crosse Public Library were very popular events.
At the closing celebration, Grand Picnic once again entertained attendees. This year the turnout was fantastic and it was really great to see so very many families riding down to enjoy the fun. Thanks to Farmers’ Market for hosting the event again. The Golden Helmets awards this year were not all that surprising. Here are the 2011 Golden Helmet Winners:
- Bike to Worship: First Presbyterian Church, La Crosse
171 attendees, 52 bicycle riders, 30% ridership - % with less than 100 Employees: Downtown Mainstreet
with 100% employee participation - % with greater than 100 Employees: SAP Labs – La Crosse
with 12% employee participation - Greatest Number of Participants: Trane
with 74 employees logging their miles
Congratulations to all the winners! Start planning now to win next year’s awards. Read more
First Presbyterian Wins Again In Bike To Worship Competition
For the second year in a row, First Presbyterian, La Crosse, led other congregations with an outstanding 30% of attendees riding their bike to worship last Sunday.
Other congregations in the competition included:
* Unitarian Fellowship, La Crosse with 13% ridership
* English Lutheran, La Crosse with 10% ridership
* Viroqua Church of Christ with 8% ridership
Thank you to all who participated.
DRBC Presents
Bike to Work Week in the Driftless Region is presented by the Driftless Region Bicycle Coalition and our partners and sponsors. This site is your most up to date source on DRBC Bike to Work Week events. Follow us on Facebook.