GREEN COMMUTE CHALLENGE
Contest Rules
Sign up for the challenge
- First your employer needs to be registered with RideShare Connection. (What if my employer isn't registered?)
- Log in to your RideShare Connection account. If you don’t have an account, create one, and select your employer from the drop-down list.
- On the My Page tab, click on “enroll” next to the "Commute Challenge" heading on the left side.
- Complete the brief survey and click on “enroll” again.
- You are now on the team and will see a "Commute Challenge" button on your navigation bar. This is where you find out how your team is stacking up against competitors.
- Start using your Commute Tracker calendar to report alternative transportation trips and become eligible for weekly and monthly prize drawings.
Another way to sign up for your company's Green Commute Challenge team is to click on the link embedded in an e-mail invitation sent by your employer.
There is no cost to participate in the Green Commute Challenge.
To qualify for team awards, employers may not add or delete team members after July 31, 2011.
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How to earn points
Participants will earn 8 points every time they report one of these modes or activities:
- carpool
- vanpool
- bus
- bicycle
- walk
- telecommute
Staying in for lunch will earn 1 point.
Any alternative transportation trips made on Ozone Alert days earn double points!
Participants who have logged at least one trip that week are eligible for weekly prize drawings. To qualify for the mid-contest prizes at the end of July, participants must have earned at least 100 points. For the August grand prizes, there will be three prize levels: one requiring at least 300 points earned during July and August, another requiring at least 200 points, and the third requiring 100 points.
Participants are expected to be accurate and honest in reporting their alternative transportation trips.
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How to use the Commute Tracker Calendar
Log in to your Carpool Connection account and click on the left-hand Commute Tracker button on your My Page tab. The Commute Tracker is a monthly calendar where you can record your alternative transportation trips.
During the Challenge participants will be automatically directed to the "advanced" tab on the calendar. To earn points, log trips here, not on the "simple" tab.
- First, select the date you are reporting a trip.
- Then select a trip type:
- Work commute
- Business meeting
- Lunch
- Non-work commute option will not earn points
- Non-work commute option will not earn points
- Then select the mode used from the drop-down list and enter the correct round-trip distance (one mile is the minimum default distance).
- Click “save” and you are done. The database assumes entries are round-trips, so there is no need to log the other half of the trip.
Participants must report the accurate length of their trips. Every trip reported is assumed to be part of a round trip. Miles and emissions saved will be calculated accordingly. There is no need to report the other leg of the trip.
| EXAMPLE DAY: Clyde Ryder takes the bus 10 miles to work. He stays in for lunch and then takes the bus one mile to an off-site meeting that afternoon. Here is what Clyde will report for that day on his Commute Tracker: | |
| Work commute - bus | 8 points, 20 miles |
| Lunch - stayed in | 1 point |
| Business meeting - bus | 8 points, 1 mile |
TOTAL |
17 points |
Multimodal trips
Participants who use more than one mode for their work commute — such as bicycle/bus or walking/bus — may report that in the challenge, provided the bicycling or walking trip is at least one mile round-trip. To do that, report each mode as a separate work commute trip and log the round-trip distance of each leg.
Staying in for lunch
Here's how to report that you stayed in for lunch. On your Commute Tracker calendar, select the date you want to report. Then click on the “lunch” button and select “stay in for lunch” from the drop-down menu. Then click "save."
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Your competitors
Compete on a team with co-workers against other companies in the Kansas City area. Team point totals and miles of reduced driving will be listed online.
Throughout the challenge, the top 10 teams will be listed on each participant's Commute Challenge page. The top 10 will be determined by the ratio of the number of points to the number of team members.
Have questions? Email us or call 816/842-7433.
Twitter hashtag #gcckc
Challenge Info
PARTICIPANTS
> Sign Up and Rules
> Guides and Explorers (NEW!)
> Log Activities
> Prizes and Awards
> Contest Results
> FAQs
> Photos and Videos
> What People are Saying
COMMUNICATE
> Send a Story
> Send a Photo
> Message Another Team
EMPLOYERS
> Manage a Team
> Participating Employers
OUR IMPACT
Between July 5–Aug. 26, 2011, the challenge's 43 employer teams and 1,794 participants saved:
- 688,528 miles of driving
- 636,841 pounds of emissions
- $372,494 in driving costs

