For me, it's not so much of a challenge since I already bike regularly, both for transportation and recreation. However, "events" and websites like the Challenge are good for my wife and my son. When you don't have any close friends that bike at all, especially for commuting or basic transportation, just the visuals and comments from folks of all ages, genders, backgrounds, and geography help them make a connection at least at a virtual level. I think a very user-friendly, graphic and image-oriented website can help bring in new riders who need some social validation of the choice to bike. Blogs, news articles, and spreadsheets don't cut it for everybody.
