Hundreds of Calgarians hop on their bikes to make their way around our city, and that’s just in the winter.

“Averaging about 400 over the last few years in December and then in July it’s an average of about 2,500, so about a six times increase between winter and summer,” said Vice President of the Board of Directors for Bike Calgary, Krista Phillips.

She said these numbers are growing every year and that’s why it’ll be great that the Winter Cycling Congress will be held in Calgary in 2019.

“It’s open to a wide-range of people, but its main focus is on towns and cities who have an interest in growing and sharing their winter cycling infrastructure,” she said.

A year ago, Phillips said Calgary was the city that a lot of Canadian winter cities were aspiring to look like when it comes to winter cycling.

“The city has done a remarkable job at putting in infrastructure that helps to create a safer environment for cyclists,” she said. “They also do a really good job in the winter of ensuring that key priority routes are cleared as a top priority, so similar to priority roads in the city.”

Calgary will be the host city for next year’s congress, but no location, or host [s] have been selected yet.

Previous congresses took place in Winnipeg, Montreal, The Netherlands, Finland and Minneapolis-St.Paul.