Vélo Québec's VÉLOSYMPATHIQUE movement wins prestigious awards and announces the results of its latest round of certification!

Montreal, Friday, June 15, 2018 -  Vélo Québec is proud to have won last night's prestigious AQTr's Grands prix d'excellence 2018 honored for its project VELOSYMPATHIC movement, a certification program for communities and organizations. The award recognizes a large-scale project that stands out for its structuring contribution to Quebec society in terms of transportation. The project also won the award in the Sustainable mobility at the same gala last night. Vélo Québec would like to take this opportunity to unveil and congratulate the 3 communities and 11 organizations newly recognized by the VELOSYMPATHIC movement.

Recognized communities and organizations encourage their citizens, employees and visitors to use bicycles for recreation and travel by taking action in at least two of the five areas essential to the development of a genuine cycling culture: Environment, Education, Encouragement, Support, Evaluation and Planning (the 5Es).

The certification approach: a continuous improvement process

Candidates are evaluated by a panel of expert judges on the basis of the actions implemented in their community in each of the 5 fields of intervention, and taking into account the specific realities of the candidate (size, geographical location, etc.).

Candidates who do not meet the certification criteria, but who demonstrate a clear commitment to the development of a bicycle culture, receive an honorable mention. Certified communities and organizations are awarded a level of certification (bronze, silver, gold, platinum or diamond) based on the relevance and number of actions implemented in their community.

All candidates receive a feedback report with recommendations they can implement to continue their efforts, and are invited to reapply after three years to assess how far they've come.

Organizations and communities wishing to become involved in the VELOSYMPATHIC approach are invited to visit the VELOSYMPATHIC website. www.velosympathique.com where they can find all the details about certification, as well as numerous tools and resources to help them develop cycling in their communities. The next deadline for applications is October 5, 2018.