New York bikes to work: 55,656 miles and counting

As the weather warms up, brave New Yorkers are taking to the streets on their bicycles – especially those signed up for the bike-to-work challenge.

Just over a week into the city-wide challenge, run by advocacy group Transportation Alternatives to mark National Bike Month, New Yorkers have burned nearly 3 million calories, and criss-crossed the city to add up more than 55,000 miles of bike riding to and from work.

The stats so far: As of Sunday night, 1585 New Yorkers have logged trips, from 531 workplaces. That’s a total of 2,727,154 calories burned, and 55,656 miles, in just 10 days.

The competition runs to May 22nd, and so far the doctors, nurses and medical staff seem to be taking their own advice about healthy living – Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York Presbytarian and NYU Langone Medical Center are in the top 5, along with M.T.A. workers and Con Edison.

Just the Memorial Sloan Kettering riders have racked up 1470 miles across the city so far.

Among smaller companies, SLO Architecture has an impressive 120 miles between just two riders, while just 7 employees of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have 303.7 miles between them.

At the end of the three weeks, the companies with the most participation will be acknowledged and participants can win prizes. It’s also not too late to sign up.