Vancouver B.C.

WHO WE ARE

Cycling Without Age is a global movement started in 2012 by Ole Kassow in Copenhagen. Ole wanted to help the elderly get back on their bicycles, but he had to find a solution to their limited mobility. The answer was a trishaw and he started offering free bike rides to the local nursing home residents.

About the Vancouver Chapter

Founded in the spring of 2018, we purchased our first trishaw in the spring of 2019 and began operations in June 2019. Our fleet will be expanding in 2020. Our primary ride area is around the West End, Yaletown, False Creek and West Side of Vancouver. We work with community partners which include: senior centres, senior care homes, recreation centres and partner organizations.

Photo March 2019 – the CWA Vancouver team meet Ole Kassow, the Copenhagen-based global founder

OUR GOAL

To break the elderly free from social isolation. Make them smile. Make new memories. And let them be part of society again and thereby renew their appetite for life itself. We give them the right to wind in their hair. We aim to reach and improve the lives of the elderly and disabled by making nursing homes a place of joy and continued mobility. We believe that life can and should be beautiful even if you’re close to 100 years.

HOW IT WORKS

Volunteers (pilots) sign up for bike rides with the elderly as often or as rarely as they want to. It’s all driven by people’s own motivation sign up to be a CWA Vancouver Pilot

CWA is less about volunteering in the traditional sense of the word, and more about active citizenship. Citizenship driven by a desire to get involved and to make a real difference for someone. It’s about creating relationships between people.

OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Generosity: Cycling Without Age is based on generosity and kindness. It starts with the obvious generous act of taking one or two elderly or less-abled people out on a bike ride. It’s a simple act that everyone can do.

Slowness: Slowness allows you to sense the environment, be present in the moment and it allows people you meet along the way to be curious and gain knowledge about Cycling Without Age because you make time to stop and talk.

Storytelling: Elderly people have so many stories that will be forgotten if we don’t reach out and listen to them. We tell stories, we listen to stories on the bike and we also document the stories when we share them via word of mouth or on social media.

Relationships: Cycling Without Age is about creating a multitude of new relationships: between generations, among the elderly, between pilots and passengers, nursing homes employees and family members. Relationships build trust, happiness and quality of life.

Without Age: Life does not end when you turn 75. Life unfolds at all ages, young and old, and can be thrilling, fun, sad, beautiful and meaningful. Cycling Without Age is about letting people age in a positive context – fully aware of the opportunities that lie ahead when interacting in their local community.

Cycling Without Age Facts (December 2019)

• Invented in 2012 in Copenhagen
• Represented in 47 countries worldwide
• 2,050 chapter locations
• 2,700 trishaws
• 31,500 trained cycle pilots
• Over one million people served
• Oldest pilot is 90 (Jørgen Hass, Denmark) and oldest passenger 107 (Madam Yeo Iu, Singapore
• Our trishaws cycle 2.8 million km a year or 70 times around the world

False Creek seawall in Vancouver, BC (summer 2019)