Registering your company
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. (You can change this later.) You will need some basic information about your workplace, such as 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.
One company, multiple locations
If your company 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.
Someone already registered my workplace
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, you will need to contact us to make that change.
Workplaces outside of Oregon or SW Washington
We may ask you to call your local bike group and suggest that they buy this website from us for a modest price and run their own challenge. And we will not count you in the final results, as the competition is only for Oregon and SW Washington businesses. But you are welcome to use the site, log trips and make challenges just like everyone else.
No internet or computer access
For employees without computer access, Captains should contact us to discuss strategies for incorporating those participants.
Non-workplaces
If your community group, farmers market, place of worship, book club or social dance would like to participate, contact us to ask how.
-------------------
REGISTERING YOURSELF
Registering yourself
All you need is a working email address. If you do not have web access at work or during work hours, that is ok. You can log all of your trips weekly or even at the end of the month.
Completing registration
After you started registration, an email 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 email address or if you lost that email, simply re-start registration with a valid email address. If you did not receive that email, check your junk mail box. If you still cannot receive that email, 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 email after registering, click the link contained in it and then complete registration, that needs to happen. If you did not receive a confirmation email, check your junk mail box and if there is no email there from "info@bta4bikes.org", it may have been rejected by your Internet Service Provider. Contact us and ask us to send you that confirmation email directly.
If you have completed registration but you are told your account is inactive, you have been struck by a mysterious coding bug. Contact us and ask us to activate your account.
The Personal ID is simply a unique "login" that identifies you to the database. It is not your email address and it is not your password. It is also not the "Company Code" from years past, which restricted registration access to those with the code
Forgot your Personal ID?
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 and will remind you of your Personal ID.
Deleting a rider
If you are a Team Captain and need to delete a rider, you can do so under the "Manage My Team" button.
No internet access
For employees without computer access, Captains should contact us to discuss strategies for incorporating those participants.
No email address
Participants can use a private, home email address if they do not have a work email address. For participants with no email address, Captains can either register those participants using the Captain's email address (see Adding and Deleting Riders under Captains, below), or they can contact us to discuss strategies for incorporating those participants.
Multiple workplaces
If you work at multiple workplaces, you can register for both teams and log trips for both teams. Simply use a different BCC Personal ID for each workplace, and do not log bike commutes on the same day for more than one workplace.
However, because your email address will now be associated with multiple passwords, the "forgot my password" link may not send you the password for the correct account. In that case, contact us for a new password.
-------------------
LOGGING TRIPS
Logging in
To log in, enter your BCC Personal ID 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.
Note that the system crunches and cross-references all the data from all users once an hour, so it may take up to an hour for your numbers to update.
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 or went out of town and need to change the status of that day to a non-workday, just click on that day and change it to "I didn't work."
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."
Forgot your Personal ID?
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 and will remind you of your Personal ID.
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, us your browser's help menu.
Telecommuting
If you telecommute to work some days (i.e. work from home), you should report that day as "Did not work" (were we being perfectly accurate we would have given people the choice of "Did not travel to work").
-------------------
Forgot your password or Personal ID?
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 and will remind you of your Personal ID.
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 email address
To change your name or your email address, 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
To change your default workweek, email us.
-------------------
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.
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 email (sent from "info@bta4bikes.org"). 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 email. The person who Challenged you does not have access to your email address through the website.
Deleting an existing Challenge
If you are engaged in a Challenge and no longer wish to be, email us to request that we delete it. Be sure to specify the names of both challengers.
-------------------
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 August, they will reflect everyone's performance in the month of August, even if most people only signed up at the very end of the month. They will reset, therefore, on the first day of September, and again in October.
How often your stats are updated
To keep the system as fast as possible for all users, the system doesn't compute and display your stats after every log. Instead, it accumulates user updates and then crunches and cross-references all the data from all users once an hour. That's why the day you just log doesn't immediately adjust your or your team's commuter rates - but just check back in about an hour, and you'll see how you're standing.
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 bicycling or any other natural weight, strength or sex 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.
-------------------
Is my email address available to my teammates?
Your email address is not available or visible to any other BCC participants 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 email address is never visible to the message sender.
Is my Personal ID visible to others?
Your Personal ID will be visible to Captains to enable them to delete duplicate registrations (which would have the same names and email addresses, but unique Personal IDs). All other BCC participants will see only your name. We do not recommend using as your Personal ID something that functions as a password in other areas of your life.
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 BTA use my email address?
We will use your email address to keep you informed about the current month-long Challenge, to ask you at the end of the Challenge (only once) to become a member of the BTA, and to announce the beginning of next year's Challenge. We will not use email addresses obtained through the Bike Commute Challenge for other purposes throughout the year, and we will not sell your email address.
Upon request and at our discretion, we may also allow local transit district or bicycle advocates to send, through us, an email to BCC Captains during the Challenge informing them of local BCC events, transportation options or other opportunities.
-------------------
CAPTAINS
Contacting your captain
To contact your team captain, click on their name in the list of Riders in the dark blue My Team area of your personal page.
Changing captains
If you no longer want to be captain of your team, please find a replacement captain and contact us with that person's BCC Personal ID and email address.
Emailing your team
Captains have the ability to email their teams (other participants can only send messages to one teammate at a time). To email your team, use the button in the light-blue Team Admin area of your personal page that says "Send a message to your team."
Be careful not to email 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 emailing your team once and asking that anyone who is interested in receiving email updates from you reply and say so.
Your team will automatically receive a weekly email from the BTA about the program and a final email in October announcing the results.
To delete a rider, email "help@bta4bikes.org" with the BCC Personal ID of the rider to be deleted, and we'll take care of it.
To add a rider, "Invite a friend" and enter the person's email 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 the light-blue Team Admin area of the personal page.
Exporting team data
Coming soon: Captains will be able to 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.
-------------------
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 (barely) work without it, but your experience will be dramatically improved if you turn it on.
-------------------
CONTACT US
If these resources don't help you, contact the BCC web team: help@bta4bikes.org
If, after contacting us, you resolve your problem independently, you can email us again and say "problem solved" to retract your request.
Sign up for the Bike Commute Challenge
Whether you’re starting a team or joining a team, sign up today. It’s quick, easy, and free.