Alameda County Schools Participate In 'Bike To The Moon' Week

Press release from The Alameda County Transportation Commission:

May 6, 2021

During the week of May 10 through May 14, schools throughout Alameda County will participate in “Bike to the Moon” Week. This county-wide event is organized by the Alameda County Transportation Commission’s (Alameda CTC) Safe Routes to Schools (SR2S) Program. This virtual event aligns with Safe Routes’ mission of striving for healthy kids, safer streets and strong communities.

Students, families, teachers, school administrators, and other school staff are encouraged to digitally track their miles and minutes of activity during this week-long collaborative event. Participants will submit their activities, and those submitted by 5:00 p.m. on May 17 will be converted to “moon miles.” These moon miles will count towards the goal of collectively “biking” 286,900 miles—the distance to the moon. Participants are encouraged to participate from their own homes and neighborhoods and to use a wide variety of active and shared transportation modes for the chance to receive participation incentives.

Traditionally, the keystone event for Bike Month is Bike to School Day during which students and families are encouraged to bicycle to school. “Bike to the Moon” Week continues the bicycling celebration and mission of supporting school communities in reducing pollution and congestion, being active and healthy, and building community. This virtual event creates a way for students and families to continue to celebrate Bike Month in a way that complies with coronavirus-related shelter-in-place orders.

During the event, the media can monitor the participants’ collective progress to the moon on social media. The Alameda County Safe Routes to Schools Program will provide the following information daily:

• Number of schools participating
• Number of students participating
• Number of "moon miles" traveled

Visit the Alameda County SR2S Facebook and Alameda County SR2S Twitter to follow the event hashtag, #IBikedToTheMoon, and to stay up-to-date on the moon miles traveled and participation numbers. Schools will not be physically participating in this event; therefore, there will not be opportunities for in-person media coverage or live coverage of the event, aside from the metrics posted on social media. Visit the Alameda County Safe Routes to Schools Program’s “Bike to The Moon” Week event webpage and the Media Toolkit for more information and to promote this non-competitive event.

This press release was produced by The Alameda County Transportation Commission. The views expressed here are the author's own.