Peterborough, Ont (June 15, 2017) Community Shifting Gears is an annual challenge that is held to encourage a shift towards active and sustainable transportation, including walking, biking, taking transit, carpooling, or telecommuting. “This year, over 850 participants logged over 31,000 active and sustainable trips,”
explained Shifting Gears Coordinator, Lindsay Stroud, “With those trips, participants walked, biked, bussed, and carpooled around the world almost two times or a total of 73,029km!”

Community Shifting Gears hosted a wrap-up celebration this evening, in honour of the hundreds of enthusiastic participants who shifted to active and sustainable transportation this spring. City of Peterborough’s Transportation Demand Management Planner, Susan Sauve, announced the 2017 Travel Wise Award
Winners, along with the Shifting Gears Coordinator, Lindsay Stroud.

Winners for the 2017 Community Shifting Gears Challenge include:

Micro Category (workplaces with fewer than 10 employees)
Winner – Engage Engineering

Small Category (workplaces with between 10 and 24 employees)
Winner – Partners in Pregnancy

Medium Category (workplaces with between 25 and 249 employees)
Winner – Peterborough Public Library

Large Category (workplaces with more than 250 employees)
Winner – Ontario Public Service

Master Class

Winner – B!KE

100% Participation
Winners – Studio–N and County of Peterborough – Armour Road

Rookies of the Year
Winners – LETT Architects Inc. and BWXT Nuclear Energy Canada

Community Spirit Award
Winner – Peter Laurie, Fleming College; Laurie works diligently each year to engage
Fleming College staff and students in the Shifting Gears challenge. Fleming holds a
2-wheel Drive event to highlight all the ways people can move by bike in our
community, and with the new Zagster Bike Share installed by the Fleming SAC,
there are even more ways for Fleming students to bike around town. Laurie also has
a fantastic Facebook group, Shifting Gears at Fleming, where he posts relevant,
informative, thoughtful pieces to inspire others.

Grand Prize
Winner – Melanie Sedge, Trent University who wins a $750 gift certificate to Resorts
of Ontario. The Grand Prize is a draw from all participants who log fifteen trips or
more.

High Schools
Winner – TAS with Teacher Coordinator, Michelle Staude; the school will be
receiving a $250 contribution to use towards active transportation programming or
infrastructure for their school!

Student Grand Prizes
Individual student prizes were awarded to students who logged the most trips.
Winner – Tristan Gammon wins a TREK bike from Wild Rock Outfitters.
1st runner up – Anna De Leenheer wins a FitBit.
2nd runner up –John Noble wins a $50 gift card.

Peterborough’s month-long transportation challenge has wrapped up for another
year. Each spring, the challenge offers a reason to change daily habits and try
something new with a little support and encouragement. This year, over 850
participants competed as workplace teams, school groups, and individual
community members, who together logged over 30,000 sustainable trips through the
month of May.