UNMC is a co-sponsor of the Young Professionals Council (YPC) Bus Challenge, which kicks off during the Earth Day celebration on Saturday, April 18. The council is a program of the Greater Omaha Chamber.
The three-week Bus Challenge, sponsored by YPC, encourages young professionals to expand their bus riding habits, assess the Metro Area Transit (MAT) bus system’s service, provide feedback about the strengths and weaknesses of the current system to increase use, and to reinforce public transportation’s role in sustainable living.
“Young professionals in Omaha pine for a public transportation system that is highly effective, efficient and meets their needs,” said Craig Moody, YPC chairman and business development director at Milo Belle Consultants, “yet most of them have yet to actually take the bus. We’re challenging them to give it a shot.”
The YPC encourages young professionals and others to form teams of up to five people to compete to see who can collectively ride the most miles on the public bus system.
Register by Saturday, April 18 at http://www.ypbuschallenge.com. Using the Web site, teams can log their hours online, provide real-time feedback using the site, or Facebook and Twitter, and complete online surveys to assess their experience.
Organizers will use the bus challenge feedback to share results of the overall experience, efficiency, accessibility, pricing and stop and station conditions with city and MAT leaders and to use it in their long-term advocacy efforts in public transportation.
The bus challenge goal is to engage young professionals to build a public transportation system that meets their needs and leads toward a more sustainable living environment in Omaha.
“This bus challenge is just the beginning of our efforts to activate young professionals of all backgrounds, trades and sectors to become involved in advocating for the public transportation system that they have always wanted and to intentionally pursue a lifestyle where using public transportation is part of their daily routine,” said Beth Katz, YPC public policy chairwoman and executive director of Project Interfaith. “We know this shift will take time but we feel it is an important shift in making our community more accessible and sustainable.”
The bus challenge concludes on Saturday, May 9, with a final team hour calculation. The winning team will earn hundreds of dollars in prizes from the challenge sponsors. Besides UNMC, other sponsors include Metro Area Transit, Prairie Life Fitness and Olsson Associates.
For more information about the bus challenge, contact Katz at (402) 659-9497 or Moody at (402) 681-9458.