Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee congratulated a small gathering of OSU employees Thursday on the steps of Bricker Hall for winning a local bicycling award.
Those gathered represented 138 OSU employees who logged miles for the annual Bike to Work Week.
In order to win the award, OSU had to present the highest number of people who switched from driving a car to riding a bicycle, said Austin Kocher, OSU alumnus and co-founder of the event. The university was in the category of businesses with 5,000 or more employees.
"I think that it shows that we have an increasingly dedicated group of faculty, staff and students who really believe that using bicycles is a means of transportation, particularly on and around the campus," Gee said. "I agree, too, one only needs to take a look at our parking problem to know that it's a welcome relief."
Gee said he thought about participating in the event this year, but his schedule makes biking to work difficult.
"I wish I were doing as much biking as I used to, and I have a beautiful bike," he said. "If I could have three or four days in which there was logic to what I was doing I'd be happy to do it."
Kocher started Bike to Work Week in 2008 with fellow OSU alumna Meredith Joy, and the week was part of a bigger Commuter Challenge that lasted from May 4 to 15. It is a regional event that includes Columbus and central Ohio.
He started the OSU team, Bucks on Bikes, and about 240 people signed up. Team members logged their trips into the event Web site, which is how organizers record participant contributions, he said. Kocher said he has been a cyclist for most of his life and he has owned a bicycle for longer than he has owned a car.
"It's always been cheaper, I've traveled quite a bit and sort of moved around, so it is obviously a lot easier to take a bike than it is to buy a car and a get a different drivers license," he said.
It was in 2007, when he was having car problems, that Kocher began identifying himself as a cyclist. He biked every day for his summer internship and got involved with other cyclists in Columbus.
Kocher said the Commuter Challenge has tripled since 2008, which has a lot to do with having the Web site for 2009.
For the entire challenge, OSU logged 1,261 trips and accumulated 5,852 miles, with 10 people riding more than 100 miles, Kocher said. The total miles ridden was 34,300 which saved 1,715 gallons of gas.
The event was started by people from OSU, and the university has been one of the biggest participators in both years of the event, he said.
"We kind of like to point out that OSU has done a tremendous job," Kocher said.
Thomas Silvers can be reached at silvers.13@osu.edu.
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