December 24, 2010 (Calgary, AB) – Calgary’s bike commuters are a small, resilient and unassuming lot that have put up for decades with a park pathway system that they created in the Seventies but now has proven inadequate as the backbone of an active transportation system in a teeming city of one million people.

As population growth has put increasing strains on all elements of municipal infrastructure it is nowhere more apparent than everywhere bicycles show up. Increased automobile congestion has dramatically increased risk to cyclists who bear all the risk of catastrophic injury. On multiple use pathways numerous, almost mutually exclusive, user groups compete for space—endangering each other. In large part due to our sedentary transportation modes the population is growing obese and health complications of our sedentary transport choices are increasing rapidly.

Calgary’s bike industry and non-profits promoting healthy and active lifestyles launched an unprecedented and coordinated approach to raising public awareness of the benefits of active and sustainable transportation.

The backbone of the program is securing talented and energetic young university graduates through the YMCA EcoIntern Program: Tuxedo Source for Sports, Pure Cycle, Barry Mah Sports (Specialized) and the Bicycle Café in Canmore are host companies in the bicycle industry. Gord’s Running Store is also a host retailer. The Kiwanis Club of Calgary Chinook, which operates a bike refurbishing program for underprivileged children, and the Calgary tour de nuit Society are non-profit intern hosts. A total of nine internship positions is unprecedented anywhere in North America. CtdnS is employing its university recruiting system to recruit new graduates at the top Canadian universities such as: McGill, UofT, York, Western and UofA. Hostelling International Canada, TransRockies Inc and The Bike Shop have committed in kind support.

In the first year of the YMCA internship program the placement at the Calgary tour de nuit Society was considered the most professionally rewarding in the Province of Alberta. The CtdnS intern was instrumental in putting a cycling item on the agenda of City Council and having it pass unanimously earlier this year. CtdnS is the only cycling organization to do so in Calgary.

The complete list of unfilled internships can be found through the link on the CtdnS website. If you are or know of a new graduate from a university program that is looking for work, direct him or her to this website. The deadline for applications is Monday, Dec. 20, 2010. Internships are for a three-month term with a possible extension to nine months. Program criteria for interns are listed on all of the job descriptions.

www.morepeoplecycling.ca