The Drive Less Challenge is a grassroots initiative that started in Menlo Park in 2009 and is expanding each year to more communities on the San Francisco Peninsula and in the South Bay. It’s mission is to promote health, quality of life, and environmentally sustainable transportation behavior by reducing solo car trips. The Challenge encourages participants to try out alternative transportation modes like public transit, biking, walking, and carpooling during the event period and beyond. Participants track their progress online and can win prizes from local merchants, a feature that encourages local shopping and further reduces car miles.

The sponsoring communities of the Drive Less Challenge advocate, inspire, and support action among their residents, businesses, and institutions to live more sustainably.  We believe we can make a difference through local action. For 2011 the sponsoring communities are listed on our home page.

For more information about the Drive Less Challenge contact us at:
drivelesschallenge@gmail.com.

Follow the Drive Less Challenge on Twitter

The Drive Less Challenge is a project of the sponsoring cities and was initiated in 2009 by the Menlo Park Green Ribbon Citizens’ Committee (MPGRCC). For more information on the MPGRCC see the Menlo Park GRCC website

Donate to the Drive Less Challenge using the following instructions. The challenge is non-profit organization hosted by Acterra and the MPGRCC

$

 

If you prefer, send a check made out to Acterra/MPGRCC with a memo or note designating ”Drive Less Challenge”  to:

Menlo Park GRCC
C/o Acterra
3921 East Bayshore Road
Palo Alto, CA 94301

19 Responses to “ About Us ”

  • bretandersen had this to say:
    April 9, 2011 at 2:32 pm

    Thanks for pointing these out, Ernest. We fixed them today.
    Bret

  • bretandersen had this to say:
    April 9, 2011 at 2:38 pm

    Thanks for the comment, Rich.
    We are working on that. Our plans depend on funding of course. However, note that the DLC complements the Great Race by addressing all residents of participating communities, local shopping and all kinds of local trips, the Great Race is focused on corporate alternative commutes.
    Bret

  • Barbara Fukumoto had this to say:
    April 16, 2011 at 6:25 pm

    I don’t know how to edit my group Says work, need it to say civic.

  • alevin had this to say:
    April 19, 2011 at 10:13 pm

    Hi, Barbara,

    Right now we’re making those changes manually, until the feature is completed to let you change existing groups. We’ll let you know when your group has been changed.

    - Adina

  • Charles had this to say:
    April 21, 2011 at 6:30 am

    Hello, This site and cause was brought to my attention this morning. When I went to the site, the “TAKE THE CHALLENGE” page was down. “Application Error”…

  • Judy Colwell had this to say:
    April 21, 2011 at 9:35 am

    Every time I try to sign up, I get this (on both Chrome and Safari browsers).

    “An error occurred in the application and your page could not be served. Please try again in a few moments.

    If you are the application owner, check your logs for details.”

  • Hershey Julien had this to say:
    April 21, 2011 at 10:44 am

    I registered and filled out a report for a bike ride today. Answering question, “How many miles did you go?” I put in the blank “one and three-tenths.” Answer came back, “Distance is not a number.” But I didn’t give an arabic number; I answered with words. How was I supposed to answer the mileage question? Hershey

  • Tim Oey had this to say:
    April 21, 2011 at 12:49 pm

    Currently the Take the Challenge button is broken. After pushing it I get the error message:

    An error occurred in the application and your page could not be served. Please try again in a few moments. If you are the application owner, check your logs for details.

    When will this be fixed?

    Thanks!

    -Tim

  • alevin had this to say:
    April 22, 2011 at 11:53 am

    Hershey, the distance needs to be reported in numbers. For example, for the bike ride you took, you would put 1.3. Please let us know if you have more questions.

  • Stefan Rosner had this to say:
    April 23, 2011 at 12:08 am

    I am having difficulty logging into the DLC 2011 take the challenge site. As recently as a week ago or so, I was able to access the site using my profile from the DLC 2010 challenge, and could see my groups and friends were still intact. But when I tried to log in to enter my miles for Earth Day, I can no longer login using my old credentials. In addition, the password reminder function claims that it cannot find my email address. Presuming that in the last week, all of the old profiles had been “wiped” or deactivated, I then attempted to set up a new profile using my old “handle”, and got an error message. Hope we can get this fixed soon so I can participate this year!

  • Elidia C. had this to say:
    May 2, 2011 at 3:15 pm

    I’m not able to log in my ride today. It seems like every time I click on “Take the Challenge”, I get an error on a new window stating “the server is down”. Please advise.

  • alevin had this to say:
    May 2, 2011 at 3:26 pm

    Hi, Elidia,

    We’re looking into this right now.

    - Adina

  • Peg Champion had this to say:
    April 25, 2012 at 9:31 pm

    Something is wrong with the Share Your Story page!
    I wrote:
    For our anniversary this year, I bought hybrid bikes for my husband and myself so that we could participate in the Challenge!

    Here’s a picture of my new bike. (Her name is Sterling.)

    This is what came up in Preview:
    F u annivesay his yea, I bugh hybi bikes y husban an ysel s ha we cul paicipae in he Challenge!

    Hee’s a picue y new bike (He nae is Seling)

    Preview did not show the image I uploaded, either.
    I tried in FireFox and Safari browsers.

    Let me know when the page is fixed please.
    Thanks,
    Peg

  • alevin had this to say:
    April 26, 2012 at 10:50 am

    Hi, Peg. Thanks for reporting the problem.

    Even though the preview looks wrong the post will turn out ok, so go ahead and post your stories. A moderator reviews all content before it is posted, so the story will not be posted if there are problems.

    The preview problem is caused by a bug in the blog plugin that submits the stories. I am looking into potential fixes or workarounds for the problem.

    In the mean time, please go ahead and post your stories which should be fine.

  • alevin had this to say:
    April 26, 2012 at 11:22 am

    Also, I made a change that should fix the preview. Looking forward to seeing the stories!

  • LosAltosGal had this to say:
    April 26, 2012 at 5:37 pm

    Cannot post miles walked. Says “Distance is not a number.” What am I doing wrong? Have tried 1 1/2 and one and a half and does not post.

  • alevin had this to say:
    April 27, 2012 at 9:33 am

    Hi Los Altos Gal. Try typing 1.5 – don’t use words, just the numbers.

  • Tom Kabat had this to say:
    May 2, 2012 at 2:05 pm

    Toward the end of the DLC perhaps a post a blog question entry asking: How do you plan to support Bike To Work Day? (thursday May 10)
    It makes sense to encourage experoiences riders to bring tools and knowhow to help at thier local Energizer Stations by perfoming minor bike adjustments and fixes, chain oiling and tire inflation etc.

  • Tom Kabat had this to say:
    May 4, 2012 at 8:48 am

    I’m enjoying the challenge.
    I’ve looked at some of the posted logs and have some ideas for more prize categories and a graph.
    Consider prizes for:
    a) Most miles walked
    b) Most miles biked
    c) Least miles driven solo
    d) Least miles in cars (includes solo and carpool)
    e) Least motorized miles (includes driving solo, carpool, bus, train)
    f) Lowest transportation carbon footprint
    Make a scatter plot of y axis= lbs CO2 saved, and x axis= lbs CO2 used. Dots can be labeled by our usernames.
    Thanks for considering these communication ideas.

Share your tips, questions and comments!