Oakland Trumps San Jose in Mayors’ Bike-Off Challenge

The results are in from the Oakland-San Jose Mayors’ Bike-Off Challenge, an offshoot of Bike to Work Month in May. San Jose Mayor and MTC Commissioner Sam Liccardo took his place at the June Commission meeting today wearing a bike helmet, explaining that he had “lost a bet.”

“Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and I had bet over which city was going to do a better job on Bike to Work Month, and clearly Oakland outscored San Jose by a considerable margin. And so I am required to wear this helmet for the duration of the meeting,” he said.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who also sits on MTC, took this as her cue to announce that city of Oakland employees biked a whopping 7,110 miles in May, while San Jose’s employees biked 2,622 miles.

“I really appreciate Mayor Liccardo entering into this friendly wager,” she said. “We are both new mayors, we’re both transportation geeks and we’re both very proud to serve on this Commission together.”

The Mayors’ Bike-Off Challenge was an outgrowth of Team Bike Challenge, in which some 1,600 teams from around the Bay competed to pedal the most miles in May.