Bike Friday Wins Enviro Award

Minister Cannon congratulates Bike Friday on first anniversary and efforts to reduce smog and greenhouse gases

OTTAWA, Nov. 23 /CNW Telbec/
The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, today extended his congratulations to Biking Toronto on the first anniversary of the launch of Bike Friday, a web-based bike commute matching service. The service is designed to help commuters in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) find bike commute matches.
To date, the Bike Friday Initiative has yielded real results in the GTA. About 100 cars a day were taken off the roads over the last year thanks to this initiative. In addition to easing traffic congestion and noise, some 300 tons of greenhouse gases were eliminated from the environment.
"I congratulate Biking Toronto for the success of its Bike Friday as we mark the first anniversary of the innitiative," said Minister Cannon. "Canada's New Government continues to support projects that represent real action towards reducing both air pollution and greenhouse gases to protect the health of Canadians and the environment."
Bike Friday is a service under the Biking Toronto Initiative, part of the Urban Transportation Showcase Program, a five-year program created to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation in Canadian cities. Transport Canada has committed $2.5 million to Biking Toronto. This is one of eight municipal projects across the country to receive funds from Transport Canada.
Bike Friday, accessed from the www.bikingtoronto.com/bikefriday website was built in partnership with Toronto cyclists. The bike commute matching service acts as a searchable database and serves a 50-kilometre radius from
downtown Toronto across the Greater Golden Horseshoe. Bike Commuters simply sign up online for their communal ride to work on last the Friday of every month.