If your community gets a lot of rain and snow, are people be less likely to bike or walk?

On first blush, an answer might seem obvious. Most people would probably choose to stay warm and dry instead of getting wet and cold. The wetter a place is, the less likely people will be to bike and walk, right? 

Well, no. The data tell a different story. According to the 2014 Alliance Benchmarking Report, there's actually a pretty weak relationship between average annual precipitation and the percentage of the population that walks or bikes to work. The below chart the relationship between average annual inches precipitation (grey line) and the percentage of the population that walks or bicycles to work (orange dots) in the 52 most populous cities: 

The data are all over the map. Some rainy, snowy cities see a lot of active commuting while others see less; some dry places see higher amounts of active commuting; a lot of these places see less. For example, about 17% of people bike or walk to work in my beloved wet and cold hometown of Boston. Meanwhile, in sunny, warm, and dry Tucson, only about 7% of people bike or walk to work. There just isn't a clear trend. 

In celebration of these new data -- and in the spirit of welcoming the most famously drizzly month of the year -- the Alliance is teaming up with Ortlieb and Streetsblog to hold a Showers & Snow photo contest. Pull on those wellies, dig out your camera umbrella, and sort through your winter photos, shuttersnappers!

Show us your photos of people walking and bicycling in the rain and snow, and we'll give the photographers of the two best images brand new sets of waterproof panniers from Ortlieb. As the proud owner of a pair of Ortlieb panniers, I can guarantee that these beauties will keep your stuff dry as Las Vegas in the summertime. 

Contest details

Photo rules: Photos should be high-resolution (at least 1,600 pixels wide or tall, if a vertical image), without watermarks. Please submit no more than 10 photos for this contest. For inspiration, check out the finalists from our last photo contest with Streetsblog. 

To enter: There are two ways to enter your photo(s):

• If you have Flickr, add your pictures to the Ortlieb Showers & Snow photo contest Flickr group. In the photo caption field, provide your name, email, city and state, as well as a caption.
• If you are not on Flickr, email your pictures as a JPG or PNG file to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , with the subject line “Ortlieb Showers & Snow photo contest.” In the body of the email, provide your name, address, telephone number, email address, and photo caption. Please submit your images in as few emails as possible.

In both cases, if you didn’t take the picture yourself, please let us know who did!

Prizes: First and second place winners will receive full sets of Ortlieb's top-notch waterproof bike bags.

• First place prize: Yellow and black Ortlieb Bike Packer Plus rear panniers, yellow and black Ortlieb Sport Packer Plus front panniers, yellow and black Ortlieb Ultimate 6 HB Bag, black Ortlieb Trunk Bag
• Second place prize: White and black Ortlieb Back Roller rear panniers, white and black Ortlieb Front Roller White Line panniers, white and black Ortlieb Ultimate 6 Classic handlebar bag, black Ortlieb Trunk Bag

Deadline: Friday, May 2 at 5:00 p.m Eastern time. Streetsblog and Alliance staff will pick 10 finalists and post them for our readers to choose the winners.

Permission: Taking pictures of people in a public place is legal and does not require permission. That said, we encourage you to ask permission as a courtesy when taking pictures of other people.

Rules: Employees (and family members of employees) of the Alliance for Biking & Walking, Streetsblog, and our parent organization, OpenPlans, aren’t eligible for this contest. Your submission constitutes your guarantee that the photograph is an original work created by you alone. Normal photo editing is fine, but please, no photo-shopping that alters the content of the photo. Only pictures taken in the United States are eligible to win.

By submitting photos to this contest, you are authorizing the Alliance for Biking & Walking to place your photo into the Alliance’s online Flickr photo library for use by the Alliance, Streetsblog, and Alliance member organizations for charitable purposes related to bike and pedestrian advocacy.