Commuter challenges are like buses…
…you wait ages for one, and then two come along at once.
But, seriously: I assume that most folk here are probably well aware of the Scottish Workplace Journey Challenge, which takes place across the whole of Scotland throughout the month of March, by which time the amount of daylight and favourableness of weather should hopefully be better: even as an experienced cyclist I am still much less keen on commuting by bike at a time of year when it is absolutely guaranteed to be dark when leaving work.
Having said that, it does no harm to at least start to encourage people to start thinking about cycling again, even at this time of year, as they are in fact doing, with the offer of some prize draws to encourage people to register in advance:
https://scotland.getmeactive.org.uk/
So you can imagine my surprise (having a short memory) to be browsing Facebook and then suddenly seeing mention on the Cycling Scotland page (there, and nowhere else) of an Edinburgh Commuter Challenge, apparently taking place right now with virtually no advance publicity (hmmm, not really the ideal time of year to be encouraging possible novice cyclists (who might not have the best of bike lights) out on dark, and possibly wet and slippy, roads anyway, in my opinion).
And then I remembered, this challenge overkill has indeed happened before.
What on earth is the point in having two rival (and nearly adjacent) commuter challenges? You might be able to drum up enthusiasm for one, but two?
If the City Council feels that it has spare money to burn on something vaguely cycling-related, I'd much rather that it spent the money on much-needed high quality infrastructure (even if only a handful of additional cycle racks), or additional cycle training sessions, than pointlessly duplicating something that is already happening, and which is funded nationwide. «sigh»
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