Today Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner congratulated Gudrun Ludorf-Weaver, President of Sustainable Cobourg, a local environmental advocacy organization, and Rick Nonnekes, Manager of Cycle Transitions, a community “do-it-yourself” bicycle repair shop, for all of their work in promoting healthy and environmentally sustainable transportation solutions.

“Ontario needs innovative ideas that can transform the transportation infrastructure of our communities in order to facilitate walking, bicycling, car pooling and public transportation. Your efforts to promote such changes in Cobourg are an example to all Ontarians.”

In 2010 Sustainable Cobourg presented the Town of Cobourg with recommendations for its revised Transportation Master Plan Study. It identified the need for land use and transportation planning which supports walking and cycling to create an “active transportation” system. It also addressed the need to create a bike-to-school program, to integrate Cobourg’s cycling policies with Northumberland County’s emerging Cycling Master Plan, to initiate cycling education and promotion, to collect and analyze cycling data and research, and to market Cobourg as a cycling tourist destination. As a result of Sustainable Cobourg’s efforts, the Town of Cobourg adopted many of the recommendations.

Cycle Transitions is a community bike shop established in 2012 that emphasizes cooperative bicycle maintenance as well as the refurbishing and sale of used bicycles at low cost. Its members help each other and the public in the art of bicycle maintenance with a view to promoting bicycle use throughout the community.

“The Green Party of Ontario wants to see efforts such as these expanded across the province and has included a number of transportation proposals in its Energy Strategy. We are focused on sensible solutions that will reduce our province’s footprint and make our economy more prosperous and efficient, saving us money today, tomorrow and years from now.

Among other things, the Green Party of Ontario advocates revisions to the Planning Act to better support efficient, livable communities with streets that are safe for all users and a $200 million fund for municipalities to invest in safe roads.”

For details on the Green Party of Ontario’s Energy Strategy and other policies see:

http://www.gpo.ca/issues