Bike Sense

Cycling Without Age: How trishaws are reconnecting seniors to community life

• The BC Cycling Coalition • Season 2 • Episode 9

Share episode

Find out how the simple act of feeling wind in your hair can transform a day of isolation into one filled with joy, connection, and even awakened memories.

Jennifer Reid, Co-Founder and Director of Vancouver Cycling Without Age Society, joins us to explore how specialized three-wheeled 'trishaws' are creating magical moments for seniors across British Columbia. What began with one bike named after Jennifer's mother has grown into a fleet of six trishaws serving 12 partner facilities throughout Vancouver, and chapters operating in 14 communities across BC. The program, which started in Denmark, now thrives in 41 countries with 3,500 chapters worldwide.

To learn how you can help bring the wind-in-your-hair experience to seniors in Vancouver and throughout British Columbia visit

cyclingwithoutage.ca/vancouver

facebook.com/cwavancouver
instagram.com/cwa_vancouver
linkedin.com/company/cwavancouver

Global

cyclingwithoutage.org

Film

cyclingwithoutagethemovie.com

Contact Jennifer Reid at jenreid@cyclingwithoutage.ca


Share your BikeSense with us! Send us a text message.


***********************************************

The Bike Sense podcast with Peter Ladner is produced by the BC Cycling Coalition – your voice for safer and more accessible cycling and active transportation in British Columbia.

Membership in the BCCC is now FREE! To find out about BCCC's projects and add your voice to the chorus please visit BCCycling.ca


Peter Ladner:

Welcome to Bike Sense, the BC Cycling Coalition's podcast, where we talk about all things related to active transportation advocacy in BC. I'm your host, peter Ladner, chair of the Board of the BC Cycling Coalition. I hope you enjoy the show.

Peter Ladner:

I first found out about Cycling Without Age when my friend Stu his wife was very ill and facing the end of her days and he was taking her out on bike rides in a tri-shaw. She was unable to move on her own but she could sit in the front of this tri-shaw and be out in the outdoors riding around in Vancouver with the wind in her hair, and she and he both loved doing this. And then I found out there's a whole organization of people who do this on a regular basis. So I brought in today to talk to us about it, jennifer Reed, who's the co-founder and director of the Vancouver Cycling Without Age Society, which is one of 14 societies like this around BC, and indeed there are many in Canada and countries around the world. This around BC, and indeed there are many in the world. Jennifer, welcome to the podcast. Could you describe to me a moment that sticks in your mind when everything was going right with one of your rides.

Jennifer Reid:

Well, we established vancouver cycling without age society in 2018, so it would have been 2019, just before the pandemic. I was taking a gentleman and his wife, Harold and Maureen, for a trishaw ride and, um the care home where harold lived, uh called me and asked if we could lift because he no longer walked. So we had to use a special lift. That is a machine that helps pick them up, put them in the tri-shaw. Maureen sat beside him. We went for a lovely ride along the seawall here in Falls Creek and we got to where one of the marinas was and I pulled over and sort of I don't know, they were enjoying the scenery, they were holding hands, it was really lovely, nice big blanket and cozy. And so I said, hey, how did you two meet anyway? And Maureen sort of looked up at me, cause we sit behind them on the bike, and she looked at me. She kind of winked and said, hey, let's see if he says anything.

Jennifer Reid:

Harold suffered dementia and we didn't know if he was going to communicate or not. And he slapped his leg and said, yeah, that's a great story. And off he went to talk about their first date, which precipitated a conversation about White Rock and parking tickets and pubs and really great. And I turned and looked at Maureen and she had tears running down her face and she was obviously very, very happy. And he, from that point on he just kept talking. And so I learned that he was a very famous hairdresser in Karesdale. He did all the hair for all the movie stars that came to town that were on movie sets way back when. And yeah, he was just a lovely guy.

Jennifer Reid:

I think what really impacted me when I took them back to the care home was the care home staff said what did you do to this guy? And I said what do you mean? And they said he came in, he was hungry, he hadn't eaten in days and he slept well that night. His wife was super happy and I said I think it was just the fresh air and feeling the connection to community and and being feeling alive and uh, and it just brought great joy to all of us and so that's the most memorable one. We get a lot of couples that live in care homes together and they love to sit together and hold hands and cozy up with a blanket and talk about stories. So many many stories to tell you, peter.

Peter Ladner:

So what is a tri-shaw and how does it work when you're in it?

Jennifer Reid:

So a tri-shaw is a three-wheel bike. Two passengers sit in the front and the person riding the bike, which we call a pilot, is behind and they get pushed around. So it's a bit different than a rickshaw, which would have the person pedaling in front rather than behind, and so that way the people in the front get all of the scenery. They see everything in front of them. It's purposely designed Trishaw. They come from Copenhagen so they're imported. I think the people in Denmark know how to make bikes and they've got these blankets. They have little hoods, they're very safe and very comfortable. They're also electric assist, so as we're pedaling around, we do get a little bit of power assist when we're on a hill climb and yeah, so they're a great bike.

Jennifer Reid:

So how the care homes got involved I guess I'm going to take you right back to the beginning is my mom was in long-term care and at the time I would go and drive to the care home and take her for a drive in the car, and that then precipitated a whole bunch of other seniors standing at the window gazing out longingly, saying take me with you. So I got a van and I started taking people for rides and I just realized that being inside a machine or inside a vehicle wasn't the same experience as being outside, and it was during that time. A friend of mine said hey, jen, have you heard about cycling without age? And I said no, I hadn't. So did the research, signed up to be one of the chapters here in British Columbia and got approval to do that, and then we started fundraising for our first bike.

Jennifer Reid:

During that time of fundraising for the first bike, I thought I better go talk to some care homes and see what they think of this idea about us riding up and taking people outside for a bike ride. And every care home that I chatted with was on board with the idea. What they really liked about the idea was the conversation that happens with people sitting side by side, and also the fresh air, and also the idea of a bit of respite for the caregivers, the families, and the families sometimes come with us and it allows them the families, not to have to focus on, you know, feeding or toileting or any of those other things. They just get to sit and enjoy the experience with their loved ones. So between the research that I did early on with the care homes, active adult daycare centers, I also spent some time with the city of Vancouver asking about the bike lanes and how they would feel about our tri-shaws, because they're quite wide.

Peter Ladner:

When you say they're quite wide, are they wider than a cargo bike?

Jennifer Reid:

Yes, because two people are sitting side by side with them. So envision the bike lanes here around Falls Creek or around Stanley Park. Well, first of all, we don't go around the Stanley Park seawall.

Peter Ladner:

Because of those barriers.

Jennifer Reid:

The barriers correct. Where we actually spend our time in Stanley Park is inside the park around the lake. They love the nature and the outdoors. So Beaver Lake. Having said that, the City of Vancouver and the Park Board at the time, back in 2018, kind of went what was coming into play with bikes and scooters and other things. Once they understood that our bikes are electric assist and not a sort of throttle drive, then we wanted to go eight to 10 kilometers. So we do not want to go fast, we want to go slow. And then they understood our cargo, which are seniors and the ability to get seniors out and enjoying fresh air and back in community. They were very supportive and to the point where they actually helped us financially with one of the first bikes that we got.

Peter Ladner:

Have you heard from other chapters in BC how they're managing these issues when they don't have protected bike lanes?

Jennifer Reid:

Vancouver is probably in my experience of talking with the other chapters around British Columbia which, by the way, they're in some pretty amazing places like Fernie and Rosland and Trail and Penticton I'm pointing out the ones that are quite hilly but also in Kamloops and Vernon and other places so those areas aren't as well structured with bike lanes yet I would say Vancouver is. So I think our tri-shaws help create that conversation in their communities, which I think is a really lovely combination of recreational senior activity and cycling. I think almost every senior that we've taken has ridden a bike at some point in their life and so they understand that feeling and that freedom that you get when you're on a bike.

Peter Ladner:

I love the fact that this runs counter to the narrative that you've got to be some sort of sort of very fit young man to be a cyclist. This is showing how cycling can serve people of all ages and all abilities and all disabilities. So talk about the finances, Jen. You mentioned that the city helped you out with purchasing your first bike. These bikes you mentioned are made in Denmark. How much do they cost?

Jennifer Reid:

They're about 25 grand to purchase it, to get it here and also to insure it and store it. So we also add a little bit of annual bike maintenance that we need. On the trishaws. You can well imagine that we have a lot of flat tires, and brake pads are a big deal when you're carrying up to 500 pounds of weight, um. So that's that's the hardcore cost for us is 25 grand, um.

Jennifer Reid:

The other high cost for us, uh, between the bike, the insurance, the operations, there is storage because they are so large. We're very, very grateful that we have a partner here in Vancouver right now that, uh, we pay rent to store our bikes, but we are looking for other storage areas around the city, primarily in for other storage areas around the city, primarily in the west side or the west end and also the east side. It would just make it a lot quicker and a lot easier for us to go from a hub somewhere within a community out to where those senior care homes and parks and recreation areas are. So, yeah, that's going to mean that it's a lease or some rent or a really great partner that wants to get behind the initiative that we got going on.

Peter Ladner:

Do the people who take these rides pay anything?

Jennifer Reid:

So we have service agreements with the care homes and the adult daycare centers, just as the families would pay for their loved one to go on a bus ride around Stanley Park. It's very nominal what they pay, but the agreement is there as a contribution to our organization to keep our bikes on the road through things like insurance and maintenance and those types of things. So there's two major programs. One is our partner program which includes those care homes, community centers, neighborhood houses, adult daycare centers, wherever you're going to find seniors hanging out. That's where we kind of hang out into running this program.

Jennifer Reid:

I was getting phone calls from family members who were looking after their loved ones at home, not in a long-term care home, and they said, hey, how do we bring our loved one to you to take them for a ride? Like we can put them in a car and bring them to Jericho Beach, for example, could you take them for a ride? And we said absolutely so. We built out a community program which just allows us to have a scheduled location, pickup point and time so people can join us, and that's by donation. So most of the folks just figure out what a nominal fee is. That helps us with our operations.

Peter Ladner:

To give us some idea of the scale of this, could you tell me how many bikes you have and how many bikes they have in, I don't know, fernie or Kamloops or somewhere? By comparison, how big is this operation?

Jennifer Reid:

Well, worldwide, I can tell you that it's in 41 countries around the world in 3,500 chapters. So a chapter is like us. We're the Vancouver chapter, no-transcript the scotland chapter, who organized that relationship with the government to understand how they do it. And here in british columbia we are talking with our own government to see what that might look like so we can expand our operations as well. But, but to answer your question, in 2018, we started with one tri-shaw. It's named after my mom, since she died, so it's called the Jill.

Jennifer Reid:

And then we are now at six tri-shaws and we have 12 partners that we schedule on a weekly basis and community ride program. We haven't set it up yet for 2025, but usually it's a weekly. We pop up somewhere usually the West end or the West side or trout Lake or somewhere in those different areas to uh. We usually connect ourself to a senior community activity going on so we can be there to support, to support the seniors that just can't walk anymore. Sometimes it's fun just to show up at the farmer's markets and spend some time, you know, hanging out there as well, so there's always a conversation happening. It takes us a lot longer than the average person to get through a farmer's market.

Peter Ladner:

So you bring your, your riders to the pilots, bring the riders to the farmer's market and then just chat with people, or you just bring the empty tri-shaw to show them how it works.

Jennifer Reid:

Yeah, so, um, during the pandemic it was, it was more people showing up there. I mean, once we were clear to ride again in 2021, um, we, riley park was the main lead where we would go and people would meet us there. They were already going to go to the farmer's market anyway and I just said, well, hey, bring your senior loved one, parent, grandparent, whatever, and we'll just go slow, you know, through the booths and chat with people, and it just made a nice conversation and a feeling of connection to the community that they're in conversation and a feeling of connection to the community that they're in.

Peter Ladner:

So these are clearly different than the rides that most of us do every day for recreation or commuting or whatever. Could you describe some of the features of these rides? How are they different?

Jennifer Reid:

we go slow. I would say that's the biggest piece when we're training people. Right now, we're in the middle of training 30 new pilots for the 2025 season and the biggest aha, I think, of everybody is first of all, you're on three wheels, so they're tippy right. You have to go slow because you can't take a corner like you would on a two wheel bike, um, but I would say that, uh, the weight and it's the, it's the ability to um, command the tri-shaw in a way where you're using the power application to your advantage and not thinking, oh well, I'll just stand up and, you know, use my body power to make it work.

Jennifer Reid:

Almost everybody realizes pretty quickly you can't stand up and ride on these things. You have to sit, and it's really about you getting the understanding of the mechanics in a way that that the bike is working with you because it's all when you put, you know, a few hundred pounds of weight in it, it's, it's an experience, right. So we learned that it takes a long time. You know our training program each new pilot gets, you know, 15 hours of training time to learn how to ride these things, and that's not even with the seniors. You know, that's just understanding the bikes, and then on top of that, we also help train them on working with seniors and what it's like to work with people with dementia and what the conversation may or may not sound like working with somebody with dementia. So we're grateful that our care home partners actually partner with our training program to help us with that.

Peter Ladner:

It reminds me of. One of my relatives got involved with something where you're comforting people in times of trouble and going for walks with them, she said was very good because you didn't have to talk all the time, and I would expect to be the same with this. You can just ride and not worry about engaging in conversation, and as you might if you were just having a coffee with somebody.

Jennifer Reid:

Yeah, it reminds me of Joseph and Margaret. That's one of the couples that goes for a ride with us almost weekly during the summertime and Joseph isn't on verbal anymore and dementia, but he sees the bike because it's red and so there's something about the color of red that he lights up, he gets a smile on his face and we know he's happy. And then when his wife snuggles in next to him and he looks at her and like I get to go with the ride, so he, he just loves it. She talks the whole time.

Jennifer Reid:

Um, funny story about her is first time I took her for a ride, she brought a pair of little scissors with her and I was like why is she bringing scissors with her? And she kept saying her English was broken, so she's a English, cantonese, and so I said, margaret, why do you have scissors? And she kept pointing at the flowers in the gardens and she wanted to cut them and I said we can't do that, these are public parks. So she said shh, just do it anyway. And I said no, no, no, we can't do that. I felt bad. And so the next time I went to the care home I took her some flowers that I had purchased. And it was funny because the care home staff said Jen, come look at this, and I walk in and the whole kitchen area and the whole dining room were just covered in flowers.

Jennifer Reid:

It turns out Margaret was a very famous florist and she just wanted to just keep making flower arrangements.

Jennifer Reid:

And so when you take her for a ride and she saw the tulips or whatever was out in bloom at the time, she just felt compelled to have to cut them down.

Jennifer Reid:

So in the very long end of that story is that there's a few floral shops that when they're ready to throw out flowers or sort of end of life, they just kind of ship them over to that care home and she just makes these amazing flower arrangements and shares them with everybody in the care home. But so I had to sort of tell our staff hey, if Margaret ever comes with a pair of scissors, please don't let her cut the flowers. That's not what they're there for, but anyway. So once I diverted her attention away from that cause, she too had dementia and got her thinking about her husband and and what was going on. And she's very, very chatty, waves at everybody like the queen and um, but her husband was just happy to sit, you know, and uh, and you knew he was happy, you know, just being with her. So he recognized her and so he loves to go out.

Peter Ladner:

Jen, one of the things that strikes me as you're talking is this notion of the joy and happiness that comes from cycling, which those of us who cycle understand intuitively. But when you're trying to sell this to, let's say, a government that wants you, think you want to get to support you, they like data, like can you prove to me that people are happy? Can you show me data on joy, or what is your measurable that you can use to get support for this?

Jennifer Reid:

You know, statistically, fortunately, we have a new person in the seniors initiative at the city of Vancouver who's doing some great work on behalf of seniors in the province. In the province of British Columbia alone there's over a million seniors and it's just going to grow with the baby boomers getting older, so we know there's going to be more and more demand. Having spoken to the ministry and which ministry is this? It's the seniors group. I'm sorry, I don't remember exactly what.

Peter Ladner:

It's the seniors ministry, but not the transportation ministry.

Jennifer Reid:

I don't remember exactly what the seniors ministry but not the transportation ministry, no, no, we tend to.

Jennifer Reid:

That's kind of an interesting conversation, peter, because years ago we got very aligned with the transportation side of cycling and that helped when we were advocate for better bike lanes, better access to, you know, disabilities, to people that are blind, to autism, to all these other things, and I thought, well, I thought, wow, yeah, we could go anywhere anytime.

Jennifer Reid:

But I said I wanted to stay strong with why we started the program in the first place, and Cycling Without Age has always been about the seniors and those with disabilities as well. I think the pandemic did it. I think when all those seniors were passing away in long-term care, we started really paying attention to how we house our seniors in care homes and what life is going to look like for them as they age. So we're looking at aging in place, we're looking at ways to keep seniors connected to the communities that they have lived and worked in, we're looking at ways to keep seniors living at home longer before they have to move their transition to somewhere else, and so the conversations are getting deeper, which I'm appreciative of, so that we can figure out together, you know, how our program, as a recreation program can support some of the desires of care homes and their recreational needs, and we just need more bikes and more spaces to be able to do that.

Peter Ladner:

What are the barriers to scaling it? Finances, I'm sure is a big one, and how are you dealing with that?

Jennifer Reid:

We have fantastic fundraising initiatives that go on. I think the awareness is getting better over time. We've been actively operating for over five years, I think, being a part of something that's a global initiative. All of us can relate. We all have a senior in our life at some point in time that is aging or passing away. So when people hear about us, they you know we always get the thumbs up, we always get the wave, we always. But you can see the wheels turning like, oh, that's really cool. And then you know behind that comes our story, behind that comes a great be a part, help us figure out how this works.

Jennifer Reid:

So our biggest barrier right now is looking at locations that we can expand to in the communities where we ride. So, again, thinking of the West Side or the West End in particular, we work with the South Vancouver Seniors Network, which is fantastic, and they are a huge, strong group of people that are advocating for seniors and seniors needs especially the low income seniors and housing and things like that. So we get into those conversations with them all and what we're looking for is like hey, do you have a warehouse? Hey, you know, do you have a storage space in a recreation center in a community center. I mean, wouldn't it be great if we could connect all the community centers around Vancouver and build a program with them? I think that would be because the seniors are already coming to those locations. So all those conversations are happening, but it takes time.

Peter Ladner:

We're focusing on the riders, but tell me something about the pilots because, going back to my friend Stu, he's in his 80s, he has difficulty walking but he can ride that bike still and I gather you told me you know him and he's still taking people for rides. Are the pilots also benefiting from this? Are they two typically seniors or who pilots Family members?

Jennifer Reid:

Yes, stu's actually an interesting story. So, stu and his wife, they ended up with one of the tri-shaws that we were going to purchase and it was at the time where his wife was no longer mobile and and he really wanted to take her out and and get the fresh air and the enjoyment and he would ride all the way to steves and for fish and chips. You know, I'm nothing, he's a fondo rider. So, just so you know, he just had a double knee replacement. So he's ready to roll, he's ready to go. He still rides with us. Go, he still rides with us. He still owns his own tri-shaw. He comes with us, he helps us out whenever we need, so he gives us the seventh bike that helps us. Be lovely if we had some public that wanted to buy a tri-shaw for their own and then they wanted to be involved in our program. I think that would be great. Like you say, he's a very active man. He's probably our oldest pilot and our youngest pilot.

Jennifer Reid:

Weirdly and excitingly at the same time, she is a nurse that is graduating university right now. She came out with her grandma on Grandma's Day, so we had a three-generation ride with Madeline and she's, I would guess, in her late 20s, early 30s. And when I asked her why? Why do you want it? You're a busy young woman, you're finishing your nursing. I'm sure you would like to do way more fun things with your own generation, and she said no, this is incredibly important.

Jennifer Reid:

She goes. I only have a limited amount of time with my own grandma. I can imagine that most people only have a limited amount of time she goes. I want to be a part of this. Even if I can only ride once a week, which is what we request of our pilots. I want to be a part of it. It really helps me and she's thinking about gerontology as her nursing degree because of her grandma. And so one ride that we did last September on Grandparents Day got her hooked, and she one ride that we did last September on grand grandparents day got her hooked, and she's in our training program right now.

Peter Ladner:

So if I wanted to be a pilot, I would have to go through a training program, and then how long is the typical ride like from the beginning to end of the pilot's time?

Jennifer Reid:

Yeah, so it's a three hour volunteer time slot once a week. That's what we request Most of the pilots. So we started with myself and another co founder and we built it up to 22 pilots. Last year with four trishaws, we now have six trishaws. We're going to need probably about 40 different volunteers so that we can go out to the different areas.

Jennifer Reid:

Most of the time we're sending two or three trishaws together at a time because the social aspect of riding together is also fun, because we'll pull up to the Maritime Museum out in Kitsilano and look out at the ocean and start a conversation, and so it's a safety thing for us us, but it's also a social part of riding together. So, point being, we're going to have different pilots if we've got all six bikes going um on seven days a week. We need a lot of people. You come to the warehouse and prepare a bike to go out and then we get to a long-term care home. Most of the time what we're doing is we arrive care home. Most of the time what we're doing is we arrive and we have one hour slots and we do two of them back to back. So we'll have a group of four or six seniors come out. We'll go for a one hour ride, come back, drop them off, take another group, do another ride, drop them off, then the pilots go back to the warehouse. So it's about three hours each shift.

Peter Ladner:

Is it weather dependent?

Jennifer Reid:

Yeah, yeah, that's funny. We were just this weekend. You saw the weather. On Saturday I had to cancel the training because it was just so wet and miserable. We have gotten caught in the rain with. We've had seniors, but the the hoods that go over their head don't cover the entire body and the blanket doesn't either, and most seniors, their metabolism and everything keeps them a little cooler than the rest of us. So we're constantly trying to keep them warm so we don't ride in heavy, heavy rain. I mean, if it's light rain and the sun's going to come out, we'll go, because they kind of like it, they think it's a little bit of fun, right?

Peter Ladner:

What about winter?

Jennifer Reid:

No, we only ride from May to October. Right now we're in training from February to April and then we get rolling full-time May to October.

Peter Ladner:

If I were in a smaller community in BC that does not have one of these chapters and I wanted to start one up, what would I do?

Jennifer Reid:

Well, that's interesting because when we didn't have a tri-shaw, I phoned Carson at the time in Victoria, who had a tri-shaw, and I said, hey, carson.

Peter Ladner:

Who's Carson?

Jennifer Reid:

Oh, carson. He was one of the founders of the Victoria chapter. There's also a Sydney, british Columbia. There's a whole list of chapters that you can find on the website and also on the Canada website.

Jennifer Reid:

Well, it was hard to talk about a bike when you didn't have one. So I was going around to care homes doing presentations saying, hey, look, this would be wonderful. And they're there. They just couldn't sort of get a sense of it. And so I realized very quickly I needed a bike, I needed a trishaw, and so I phoned Carson. I said, hey, wheel that thing on a ferry and I'll come pick you up with a moto van and um, and then I could then roll it around the city and do demo rides and it really, really helps. So all of us who run chapters have that very that pay it forward sense. So, as a matter of fact, maple Ridge came and did a ride with us and they're busy fundraising to get a chapter going, and I said, hey, if you have a special senior event we'll come out and you know, help you out with it. So I think what you'll find in the other chapters around the province, you know, if there was a small community that wanted to get going. Whoever the closest chapter was to them, would be more than willing to come and help for a day or so, because we've all been stuck with this feeling of how do we get started when we don't have a bike? You know, fundraising is the cart and horse is what it is.

Jennifer Reid:

The most common way that people start a chapter for cycling without age is through a care home. So they build a relationship with one care home, usually because their parent is in the care home and the care home goes, hey, we'll store it, we'll insure it and we'll, you know, you ride it from here, which was lovely. But when I was looking at it, I said, well, it and we'll, you know you ride it from here, which was lovely. But when I was looking at it, I said, well, that's really limiting though, because then that Trishaw sits in the basement for all the days that nobody wants to ride it and the rest of the community is not getting a chance to to be a part of that. So when we sat down and talked and said, okay, this is going to be the hardest way to do this, but let's, let's establish ourselves as a non-for-profit society with charitable status, and that'll allow us to go where we want to go.

Jennifer Reid:

So that's when we decided that we were going to build relationships with what we call partners and we weren't obligated to any one partner. We could do what we needed to do to expand the operations. So yeah, I think for us, because of the way that we've done it, we have sort of a, we have a way to keep those wheels on the ground and rolling and the bikes maintained and insured and all those other things that we have to look after them. We have hired an executive director for our program and he's now looking after all the fundraising and other things for us. So that allows us that growth that would naturally happen.

Jennifer Reid:

Whereas if you're established with one care home, it's a great program don't get me wrong but it is limiting to do it that way. Having said that, the chapters around British Columbia, like in Penticton it runs out of One Sky, which is a community center. Up there In Vernon it runs out of one of the care homes, but they have partnership agreements with other care homes. In Fernie it runs independently and then they actually ride in the snow. They put studs on them and ride in the snow. It's awesome. So every chapter just kind of figures it out and does it differently.

Peter Ladner:

Well, thinking about that nurse who's got a future in gerontology. Gerontology is coming on strong and there are many of, I must say, us seniors and I would think the demand for this is pretty huge, like almost unlimited. And you're just scratching the surface. Are there places like in Denmark, for example?

Jennifer Reid:

where there really is. It's a big proliferation of these bikes and providing this service. I can't speak to Denmark, but I think the countries that are run by the government are probably the biggest. Singapore is huge. I don't know exactly how many bikes they have. Scotland, I know, is huge. I don't know exactly how many bikes they have. Scotland, I know is hundreds.

Jennifer Reid:

And I only know this because I went to their head office, which happened to be near the Kelpies and near their Falkirk wheel, if you know where that is in Scotland and all of their tri-shaws were stored on in a. It was like an old greenhouse on a golf course. No-transcript. You're going to need it. And that was my first question to the gang in Scotland was I said so what's your biggest hurdle to get over? And they said, well, it bike maintenance. So when something breaks or like literally breaks, not just a flat tire, you know how do we get to them in a very remote community to fix them. So they've figured that out by building up sort of a train, the trainer bike mechanic program, and they go around the country and they do all that.

Jennifer Reid:

So I would say there's to scale it. You know you need the support of many businesses within the cities. The idea in Scotland, for example, is that if a community wants to have a tri-shop, then the government of Scotland will say that's great, put in your application, fundraise and get some money towards it, put some skin in the game and when they hit a certain level of fundraising, then that bike goes into that community and with it comes a service agreement and how it's going to be maintained and what have you? So branding and all those other lovely things that go with it as well. And training and training the people to ride them, training the community how to build the relationships, the care homes, I mean. Really that's not the hard part, they have the strong relationships. As it is, it's more understanding the bike and the bike's abilities, the tri-shock's abilities.

Peter Ladner:

This is a wonderful program, jen, and I'd love to see it expanded more, and I can see a lot of people wanting to do it. Just on the sponsorship matter, are there typical businesses that would step up, or are there cases where the bikes themselves are branded, like our shared bikes? Are that would give value to a sponsor, and are there sponsors eager to step up?

Jennifer Reid:

Yeah, I mean we're looking for sponsorship for our two newest bikes. They're unnamed at this moment in time. All of our tri-shows get names unnamed. At this moment in time All of our trishaws get names. So we're looking for that kind of fundraising opportunity for a business who would like to align their vision and mission with our initiative and get a little bit of exposure as we ride around the city. I would say the most people that are working with us in terms of helping us financially have been family foundations, a few individuals that donate very kindly. There's lots of in-kind. We're trying to build stronger relationships with Vancouver Coastal Health and just being able to build up those partnerships as well, not from a financial perspective, but more from a location or a partnership perspective.

Peter Ladner:

Well, it sounds like you've got a lot of work, but more from a location or a partnership perspective.

Peter Ladner:

Well, it sounds like you've got a lot of work to do and a lot of work has been done, but I would just congratulate you on making this possible for people and demonstrating the potential to other places in the province that are also doing this and could expand.

Peter Ladner:

And it sounds very wonderful and brings out, I think, some of the best in biking, where the pilot's getting some exercise, the people are getting the fresh air, the wind in their hair and seeing out in nature. I think we underestimate that, as you said at the beginning, compared to being in a van and I've taken senior friends of mine around driving and it's been wonderful you open the door at some place and let them just soak it up but I could see how this would be so much more fun and I think the elements of fun, joy and happiness are so much a part of it, and I love those stories about the people with dementia kind of coming to life in a way they don't typically just because they're at the time they're on the bikes Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Jennifer Reid:

I think I just wanted to add that you know there's lots of other ways to volunteer with us, but the one that is the most popular is riding the tri-shaws. And when I ask the volunteers that ride the tri-shaws because we've had many that have been with us for four or five years that just keep coming back they love that it's seasonal, they love that they're getting exercise Albeit, you're not getting a workout, but you're getting some exercise. You're, you're connecting to a community, you're giving of yourself and your time, you're learning something about these amazing people and you're sharing. You know you're sharing Vancouver. You feel a bit like an ambassador of the city, vancouver, you feel a bit like an ambassador of the city.

Jennifer Reid:

So it's as, as a few of our long term volunteers have said you know it's checks all my bucket lists of wanting to be involved and I think, as seniors are retiring they're, they're very active seniors. They want to be doing something and volunteering is a great way to give back. So you know, we create a really easy structure for them to step into and be a part of. We give them the. So you know, we create a really easy structure for them to step into and be a part of. We give them the training. There was a lot of social time where we get a chance to go out and do fun things together. Yeah, so it's a win-win-win and I have yet to have a bad experience. Even when somebody's having a bad day, they, you know, inevitably they'll go. Let's keep going because now I'm feeling good. So, yeah, it's. It's puts a smile on our face all the time.

Peter Ladner:

Fantastic. Thank you so much, jen, and thank you for sharing this with us, and we will put information in the show notes for people who want to help out, as being a bike mechanic or sponsor or start a program or expand it or find out more from you. So thanks so much for joining us.

Jennifer Reid:

No, thank you for your time. It's amazing.

Peter Ladner:

You've been listening to Bike Sense, an original podcast from the BC Cycling Coalition. If you like the podcast, we'd be grateful if you could leave us a rating. On whatever platform you use, you can also subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. If you have comments or suggestions for future episodes, email me at peterladner at bccyclingca. You can help us amplify BC Cycling Coalition's voice by simply becoming a free member at bccyclingca. Thank you.