The City of Kingston announced today that we had the highest percentage of Commuter Challenge participants in Canada in the medium-sized city category.
Additionally, Kingston also had the second highest number of participants in the entire country after Winnipeg, Manitoba, which has six times the population of Kingston.
The Commuter Challenge is a competition held each year during the first week of June, challenging participants to walk, bike, bus, roll, tele-commute or carpool to work instead of using their personal vehicles.
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Kingston had the highest percentage of Commuter Challenge participants in Canada for our size, and the second highest number of participants in the entire country after Winnipeg, Man. – a city with over six times Kingston’s population.
“I am amazed at how the community came together to accomplish this incredible feat,” said Mayor Bryan Paterson in a release.
Mayor Paterson entered into a friendly wager with Thunder Bay’s Mayor Bill Mauro early on in the event, agreeing on a wager on which city would take the crown this year – Thunder Bay having broken Kingston’s five-year run as champ last year, when they were named as the medium-sized city with the highest percentage of participants.
Mayor Paterson will now be sending a Kingston flag and t-shirt to Mayor Mauro, who will wear the t-shirt and fly the flag to honour their bet.
#YGK FTW! We’ve reclaimed our title! Thank you Mayor Mauro for accepting the challenge. At the end of the day, this friendly competition was about getting people involved. I think the numbers speak for themselves – both cities had incredible participation rates! @CityThunderBay https://t.co/EtAF5NdxSP
— Bryan Paterson (@MayorPaterson) June 17, 2019
“I think the friendly competition with Thunder Bay helped to motivate us. Both cities pushed until the very end, and I think we showcased the difference smaller cities can make when we dedicate ourselves,” said Mayor Paterson.
“Our competitive nature isn’t the only factor driving participation,” he added. “I believe a lot of residents are increasingly concerned for the environment and looking for ways to reduce their environmental footprint. For a lot of Kingstonians, commuting is a great way to make a personal impact.”
In all, 1,572 Kingston residents registered to participate, including 96 workplaces, and emissions avoided in this year’s challenge by Kingstonians totalled 19,211 kg – the equivalent to taking four cars off the road for an entire year.
Photo: Nuno Ribeiro (cc)