Oregon State University is starting a new program to encourage more students and employees to bike to the Corvallis campus. The program, called ZAP Oregon State, helps cyclists track their trips and earn prizes for biking to OSU. A celebratory launch event will be held at OSU’s Beyond Earth Day Community Fair from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday, April 24, in the Student Experience Center Plaza.

ZAP Oregon State is open to all OSU students and employees. Students and employees track their rides to campus using a small tag mounted on their bike. The trip is logged automatically as riders pass one of eleven ZAP tag readers at entrances to campus. The readers emit a beep to confirm that a ZAP has been recorded.

Participants can check their progress online, including calories burned and gallons of gas saved. Rewards will include gift cards to local businesses, bike gear and daily parking passes to the OSU Corvallis campus.

“ZAP supports current bike commuters and encourages new riders,” said Meredith Williams, OSU Transportation Services director. “We are excited to promote health and fitness, facilitate friendly competition and reduce parking and traffic congestion on campus.”

Jay Well, a beta tester for ZAP Oregon State and the assistant director of SMILE on the OSU Corvallis campus, enjoys the program.

“I love it,” Well said. “The OSU ZAP Program has given me that extra motivation to ride to work throughout the cold and rainy Oregon winters.”

After the launch event, OSU students, staff and faculty can join the program by bringing their bike to a tagging location. Current tagging locations are OSU Transportation Services in Adams Hall, the Dixon Bike Shop and the Corvallis Bike Collective. For more information about the program, visit zap.oregonstate.edu.

For more information about the launch event or ZAP Oregon State, contact OSU Transportation Services Director, Meredith Williams at [email protected] or 541-737-0673.

General OSU

About Oregon State University: As one of only three land, sea, space and sun grant universities in the nation, Oregon State serves Oregon and the world by working on today’s most pressing issues. Our more than 36,000 students come from across the globe, and our programs operate in every Oregon county. Oregon State receives more research funding than all of the state’s comprehensive public universities combined. At our campuses in Corvallis and Bend, marine research center in Newport, OSU Portland Center and award-winning Ecampus, we excel at shaping today’s students into tomorrow’s leaders.

Source: 

Meredith Williams, [email protected], 541-737-0673

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