{"id":1219,"date":"2009-04-23T18:09:36","date_gmt":"2009-04-23T23:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezing.me\/transfer\/?p=1219"},"modified":"2014-09-23T08:36:19","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T13:36:19","slug":"commuter-challenge09","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/commuter-challenge09\/","title":{"rendered":"Commuter Challenge Showcases Benefits of Biking in Oxford-UM Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nOXFORD, Miss. \u2013 In the battle between good old American horsepower and
\nthe trendy environmental challenger, the “green” guys won, and it
\nreally wasn’t even close.\n<\/p>\n

\nBicyclists won both legs of the Oxford-University Green Week 2009
\nCommuter Challenge, easily outdistancing competitors on
\nOxford-University Transit buses and in cars. The event, which kicked
\noff Green Week’s transportation day, was modeled after similar events
\nin other cities.\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nOn the first leg, participants raced from Wal-mart on Oxford’s west side to the University of Mississippi Student Union. The other route started at the Oxford Activity Center and ended at City Hall.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\"Commuter<\/p>\n
\nUM senior Eddie Smith is the first to complete the Commuter Challenge’s Wal-Mart-to-campus leg Thursday morning.\u00a0Smith beat an OUT bus with a time of under 8 minutes. UM photo by Kevin Bain.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“Oxford is a town that’s really built so you can get around without a car,” said Mike Mossing, a UM chemistry professor who organized the event. “New York City is one, and it’s an egregious ordeal.”<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\nBoth races started around 7:30 a.m., and were over in mere minutes. On the first leg, UM senior Eddie Smith checked in at the Student Union with a time of 7 minutes, 43 seconds. The bus arrived a couple of minutes later.\n<\/p>\n

\nMany of the west side bus competitors were first-time OUT riders. Along for the ride were Rebel Radio’s Blake Buck, UM senior marketing major Christina Palmer and Shannon Richardson, OUT commissioner.\n<\/p>\n

\n“Riding the bus was so convenient and honestly, relaxing,” said Palmer, who spent the 10-minute bus ride reading a book. “You better believe I’m going to be riding the bus again. Why wouldn’t I?”\n<\/p>\n

\nCarpoolers Jim Morrison, UM sustainability coordinator, and Syd Spain, director of the UM Research Park, came in next, clocking in at just under 11 minutes. \tThey were slowed by the necessity of finding a parking space and then walking to the Union.
\nA couple of other cyclists, who decided to use a more leisurely pace, arrived shortly afterward.\n<\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile, bikers Mayor Richard Howorth, City Shop Director Bo Ragon and UM student Jace Ponder completed their 1.1-mile commute in just over three minutes. They used the Oxford Pathways bike trail to cut across town to the Ole Miss-Oxford Depot, then zipped up Van Buren Avenue to the Square, beating the OUT bus by three minutes. No cars participated in this leg.\n<\/p>\n

\n“This shows that there are ways to get where you need to go in Oxford other than in a car,” Howorth said, still breathing hard from his ride. “If you choose to bike or walk, you’ll get exercise and fresh air. And if you take a bus, you get to meet new people and you don’t have to hunt for a parking space.”\n<\/p>\n

\nGreen Week 2009 concludes Friday with low carbon diet day. For a full slate of Green Week events, go to http:\/\/green.olemiss.edu<\/a> . For a blog about other Green Week activities, go to http:\/\/olemissgreen.blogspot.com\/<\/a> .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 In the battle between good old American horsepower and the trendy environmental challenger, the “green” guys won, and it really wasn’t even close. Bicyclists won both legs of the Oxford-University Green Week 2009 Commuter Challenge, easily outdistancing competitors on Oxford-University Transit buses and in cars. The event, which kicked off Green Week’sRead the story …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[222],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nCommuter Challenge Showcases Benefits of Biking in Oxford-UM Community - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/commuter-challenge09\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Commuter Challenge Showcases Benefits of Biking in Oxford-UM Community - Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 In the battle between good old American horsepower and the trendy environmental challenger, the “green” guys won, and it really wasn’t even close. Bicyclists won both legs of the Oxford-University Green Week 2009 Commuter Challenge, easily outdistancing competitors on Oxford-University Transit buses and in cars. 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