In May, 115 UN personnel and delegates joined forces to take first place in New York City’s Bike Month Challenge. Together, they pedaled nearly 13,000 miles, equivalent to half the Earth’s circumference.
The top 3 UN teams were “DPPA-DPO”, the “German House Schnitzelers”, and “DGACM Riders”, which each logged more than 2.000 miles. Ann Kristin Dyrkolbotn from the Department of Peace Operations single-handedly logged more than 765 miles over the month – an average 25 miles a day!
At a ceremony on the North Lawn on 13 June, Transportation Alternatives (the challenge organizer) presented the United Nations with an award for having logged the most monthly trips (more than 2,000) among all NYC-based organizations. The UN was represented in the ceremony by Maher Nasser, Director of the Outreach Division in the Department of Global Communications, and Aitor Arauz, President the UN Staff Union-New York.
This achievement is testimony to the growing interest in greener, healthier, more equitable transportation modes within the UN at a time when the staff and Member States have expressed concerns about obstacles to cycling at UN Headquarters.
A $950.000 budget proposal for the construction of an additional bike parking will be discussed shortly in the Fifth Committee (see reports A/78/6 (section 29B), pp.66-67, and A/78/6 (section 33), p.7), while temporary bike parking has been installed by the General Assembly Building for use by permanent and deputy permanent representatives.
UN participation in the Bike Month Challenge was coordinated by the UN Staff Union Micromobility Advocacy Group, with the support of the Sustainability and Resilience Unit in the Department of Management Strategy and Compliance, the Department of Safety and Security and its Road Safety Team, the permanent missions of Romania, Latvia and Denmark and the UN Staff Recreational Council’s Bike Club.
