Eight Ontario universities are engaged in a competition to see who can get the most students cycling.

The Share the Road Cycling Coalition is holding the Ucycle contest through November 30. The goal is to make universities, and ultimately the province, more bicycle friendly. 

The University of Windsor is currently sixth of eight schools, but only 19 registered participants behind first-place Trent University. The university with the most cyclists signed up will win $500 in prize money to go toward a project within the Ucycle program.

Students do not have to ride their bikes to school to enter, they just have to sign up at the Ucycle website, ucycle.ca, and log the number of kilometres they ride.

The UWindsor Cycling Association sponsored September’s “Bike Month” with several events and prizes, as well as a “Fix-it-station” where students and staff can tune up or repair their bikes for free.

Organizers at the University of Windsor are also looking to plan new events. They want to do one they will call “Lights on Bikes,” where cyclists get a chance to ride in the dark, says local Ucycle coordinator Serena Bhardwaj.

“The idea is that I’m going to have campus police hand out lights,” she said. “And you’re making your community bike friendly.”

—article and photo by Krisztina Kiraly