KEVIN MENZ
Associate News Editor
 
    Retire Your Ride celebrated its last stop on the Bicycle Show and Shine tour Aug. 28 at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market. 

The tour, which travelled throughout rural and urban Saskatchewan, supported the federal government’s Retire Your Ride program to promote bicycle use and public transit in place of automobile use. 

     Retire Your Ride is a national program implemented by the government of Canada to reduce air pollution by removing cars made before 1995 from use on Canadian streets.

     The government issued $92 million for the project which enabled the Bicycle Show and Shine tour to travel throughout Saskatchewan promoting environmentally-friendly transportation.

     Jen Antony, project coordinator for Retire Your Ride Saskatchewan, said the tour helped provide reasons for citizens to retire their high-emission vehicles.

     “We wanted to entice people to get outside our society’s car culture habits,” said Antony. “We wanted to show people how much fun biking can be and that Smart Cars are not as impractical as people think.”

     To promote efficient vehicles, the tour showcased two travellers in one Smart Car hauling a bicycle.

     “We leased a Smart Car and travelled around rural Saskatchewan through gravel roads and all over,” said Antony.

     Of course, travelling through the difficult Saskatchewan roads with a Smart Car completely disrupted the way many Saskatchewan citizens consider travelling — the large truck is no longer a necessity, Antony pointed out.

     Aside from displaying low-emission and practical travel methods, the tour presented numerous reward incentives for Saskatchewan citizens to retire their rides.

2,995

Number of vehicles accepted into the program

2,595

Number of vehicles permanently retired

15

Number of participating recyclers

     There are six choices of rewards for people who choose to stop driving their old, inefficient vehicles: a $300 cash reward for the vehicle; up to $490 off a high-end bicycle; a free six-month bus pass from Saskatoon Transit; $1,000 worth of credit on a non-expiring account with Saskatchewan Transportation Company; $3,000 from an automotive company if one purchases a vehicle from the same company; or 20 per cent off a MEDIchair scooter.

  Antony says the final option is amazing for people who are elderly or disabled.

     With these incentives, the program has been a huge success.  Its national goal was to retire 50,000 vehicles by March 31, 2011.  So far the program has retired over 90,000 vehicles throughout Canada.

     “It’s really exciting that we’ve greatly exceeded our goal,” said Antony.

     For people who are interested in retiring their vehicles, they can do so at retireyourride.ca or they can attend a Retire Your Ride event within the city to find out more.

     “We will be set up in the bowl during Welcome Week and people are encouraged to find out more about the program,” concluded Antony. 

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image: Flickr