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Whistler defends Commuter Challenge title

Top town in Canada in participation, results

One of the main reasons for moving Whistler’s Commuter Challenge from two weeks in late September-early October to one week in June was that it gave the community a chance to compete against other towns across Canada.

By those standards Whistler earned the title of National Champion Community for the second straight year, after winning a one-day event last year, pitted against 150 other communities.

Whistler had 845 participants with 59 Whistler businesses and two schools adding to the total. Not including school groups, 7.83 per cent of residents took part, or almost double the participation rate of the next town, Indian Head, Saskatchewan.

Altogether it’s estimated that by taking environmentally friendly alternative forms of transportation to work and school saved almost 17,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, or enough to fill three gymnasiums.

Taking alternatives also had its financial benefits. If all 845 participants drove alone to work and back the fuel costs would be over $7,600.

The complete results are available online at www.commuterchallenge.ca. Individuals and businesses are separated from schools in the results.