EMU won with a final total of 26,866 points, placing 94th out of more than 7,000 groups. EMU was 14th out of all universities, leading the pack among higher-education institutions with 10,000 or fewer students. Participants were given one point per mile and 20 points per day of biking.

“The success of the EMU teams was fantastic, but even more enjoyable was making new connections with team members in different areas of campus,” said , EMU sustainability coordinator. “It’s surprising to find so many others who are excited about bicycling. It spurred some healthy competition, too.”

Benjamin Bailey led EMU with a team-high 2,442 miles. EMU had 19 faculty and staff riders log 9,415 miles during the challenge.

Overall, the National Bike Challenge saw more than 30,000 people ride 12 million miles. Riders participated either as an individual or on a team of up to 10 persons.

The bike-challenge award was the second earned in 2012 for EMU’s bicycling efforts. In October, the League of American Bicyclists conferred a bronze award on EMU, making EMU the third university in Virginia, following Virginia Commonwealth (silver award) and George Mason (also a bronze), to be recognized by the League as a “bicycle friendly university.” Nationally, EMU is one of the two smallest universities 鈥� and one of just a handful of private ones 鈥� to receive the bicycle-friendly designation from the League of American Bicyclists.

In a statement released Oct. 24, the conferred a bronze award on EMU, making EMU the third university in Virginia, following Virginia Commonwealth (silver award) and George Mason (also a bronze), to be recognized by the League as a bicycle friendly university.

From her office in Washington DC, Nicole Wynands, the League鈥檚 bicycle friendly America program specialist, said EMU was one of the smallest universities to compete for the award. Of the 44 universities on the 鈥淏FU Master Award List,鈥� EMU and one other university (Chatham in Pittsburgh) are the only small, private institutions. Grand award winners are Stanford (platinum) and two branches of the University of California, at Davis and at Santa Barbara (both gold).

A total of 41 universities have earned silver and bronze awards, almost all of them being large state-supported institutions, such as the Colorado State University, Oregon State University, the University of Maryland at College Park, Michigan State University and Florida State University. EMU earned a spot among the 25 bronze honorees for creating a culture in which faculty, staff and students see bicycling as the norm. EMU鈥檚 steps include removing on-street parking spaces to set up a bicycle lane, putting bike racks in and storage areas around campus, having a bicycle coop for bike repair, and collecting recycling with a bicycle-pulled trailer.

The University of Virginia also applied for an award from the League and was granted an 鈥渉onorable mention鈥� for 2012-13.

鈥淥ctober 24 is also Campus Sustainability Day 2012,鈥� said Andrea Wenger, EMU director of . 鈥淩eceiving the bicycle-friendly award on this particular day points to EMU鈥檚 commitment to reducing the use of fossil fuels and improving the sustainability of our campus as well as the health of our people.鈥�

More information about the bicycle league and its awards can be found at .