Ride for the Region:
A Call to Action for Enhanced Regional Sustainability & Mobility

The transportation sector accounts for nearly 40% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions int he DMV (D.C., Maryland and Virginia). One simple, cost-effective way to reduce transportation-related GHG emissions is to increase the use of transit and active transportation. Every trip taken by transit instead of a private vehicle reduces regional GHG emissions and promotes clean air and a healthy region. As Metro’s ridership grows, its positive environmental impact increases. Our Ride for the Region Challenge intends to spark increased use of public transit through gamification and friendly rivalry - riding the wave of March Madness as we head into Earth month.

Our Ride for the Region challenge invites universities, non-profits, public and private sector employers throughout the DMV to join a friendly, spirited ridership challenge. During the competition, individual riders from participating organizations will log their trips on Metro rail or bus services over a set period to see which organization can deliver the most transit trips as a team! By incentivizing new riders and/or encouraging riders to come back to transit, this challenge aims to not only boost the utilization of public transit services during the competition, but to promote a sustainable transportation mode shift.

how did this start?

On November 8, 2023, the Advanced Energy Group (AEG) brought together 40+ clean transportation thought leaders at the AEG DMV Stakeholder Challenge on Mobility & Clean Transportation to discuss critical climate and equity challenges for the region. Participating stakeholders aligned on a critical obstacle to address over the next 12-months, identified a solution for this challenge with both short-term (90-day) and long-term (12-month) goals, and established a task force to drive change and deliver results.

Highlights of the AEG Stakeholder Challenge on November 8, 2023.

As a result of the Stakeholder Challenge, the following obstacle and goals were derived:

  • 12-Month Critical Obstacle: “Lack of overwhelming consensus to center mode shift in our clean transportation strategy and make everything else secondary to that goal.” - Caitlin Rogger, Deputy Executive Director, Greater Greater Washington

  • 90-Day Goals: Develop framework for Ride for the Region challenge; Conduct outreach to public and private organizations across the DMV, highlighting the vision for the challenge and emphasizing the benefits of clean transportation for the environment and community; Identify organizations to pledge commitment to participating in a ridership challenge.

  • 12-Month Goals: Obtain sustainability ride pledges from xx organizations within the first year; Host at least one month-long ridership challenge (riding the wave of excitement around March Madness, or Earth month) between organizations; Collaborate with regional stakeholders to develop marketing and communications that help increase participation and enthusiasm for the competition.

The following volunteers have designed the Ride for the Region challenge in partnership with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s Commuter Connections and insight from the Harlem CoLab at Columbia University.