Boston’s congested rush-hour roadways are no match for commuters on two wheels.
Bicyclists took the top two spots in Monday morning’s fifth annual Boston Rush Hour Challenge. The friendly competition pits people driving cars, riding bikes, taking the MBTA, bike-sharing with a Hubway and using just their feet against each other to see who can make it through Boston rush-hour traffic to reach their destination fastest.
Though the challenge is a race of sorts, organizers say the goal is to show the different kinds of challenges that different kinds of commuters face during Boston rush hour.
“What this event does is highlight that, no matter who you are or how you get around, we all have challenges and should all be working together to improve our streets,” Stacy Thompson, executive director of the LivableStreets Alliance, said in a statement.
The morning commute challenge was new this year – typically the Boston Rush Hour Challenge has tested different modes of transport during the evening commute, but Andrew McFarland of LivableStreets said the results were pretty similar.
“The personal car has almost always been in dead last,” he said. And those results rang true Monday as well.
In the challenge, a driver, biker, runner, MBTA rider, Hubway rider and Copenhagen Wheel e-assist bike raced from Dudley Square to Faneuil Hall, starting off at 8 a.m. sharp.
The Copenhagen Wheel e-assist bike – a motor-assisted bicycle – came in first at 13 minutes and 48 second.
Second was the personal bike, at 15:28.
Third place was the runner, arriving in 21 minutes, 15 seconds.
The MBTA rider took fourth place, arriving in 23 minutes and 55 seconds.
Fifth was the Hubway rider, finishing in 28 minutes and 48 seconds.
Last place, of course, was the driver.
“I think the lesson we take away from this competition is that everyone uses multiple modes to get around, and we just want to draw attention to all these different options,” McFarland said. “Some are not only faster, but more enjoyable and have other benefits, like for health and the environment.”
For the evening commute, the contestants competed with the same modes but traveled from Faneuil Hall to Redbones in Davis Square, Somerville. The motorized Copenhagen Wheel bike won the afternoon race as well, proving that two wheels still gets the better of four in Boston rush-hour traffic. For a full list of results visit metro.us/boston.
Redbones will be throwing its annual Bike Block Party Monday from 5 to 9 p.m. in celebration of the race. Tickets cost $15.
