Cycling Without Age: Unique program brings joy of cycling to seniors

A Toronto couple is spearheading an international initiative in the city that brings the joy of cycling to seniors and those with mobility challenges.

The program, called ‘Cycling Without Age‘ (CWA) was first wheeled out in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2012. Since then, it has spread to 51 countries across the world. The concept is simple: helping those that cannot bike on their own experience cycling in a safe, accessible way.

Volunteers pilot a specialized, semi-electric vehicle called a trishaw and take passengers on rides to get some fresh air and engage with the community.

When Ian Catteral first heard about it, he was instantly intrigued and felt Toronto needed just such a program. He and his partner Dorothea Torrico put their heads together to get the city its very own trishaw.

“Toronto’s got a developing bike culture and there wasn’t a program like that here,” he explains. “I’m an avid cyclist, I do all my commuting by bike … that’s an experience I wanted to be able to share with my mum, my grandmum Maria … it’s something that I thought was an amazing program that should be accessible to everybody in the community.”

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Currently, the program is a one-bike operation in Toronto and people can sign up via email to pedal the trishaw and take their loved ones, neighbours or friends for a ride at zero cost.

Trishaw pilot Ingrid Sikorcin has taken her mother out a few times and says while she’s not easy to please, it has her hard-won approval.

“Every time I ask my mom to do something, the first thing she says is ‘no.’ Definitely she doesn’t want to do anything twice. But this, she was very happy to go again,” she said.

Sikorcin says the rides are an enjoyable and stress-free way to get people like her mother out of the house and to areas that they may not be able to access otherwise.

“As we age, it’s important to get people out — especially with the pandemic, people tend to stay inside more,” she said. “Maybe they can come to [High Park], but they can’t get down to the lake. So it expands their experiences with nature in different ways,” she said.

Ingrid Sikorcin takes her mother out for a trishaw ride in High Park. Credit: Ingrid Sikorcin

“I really miss getting down to the water’s edge at the lakeshore,” added Evangeline Kubin, who was recently diagnosed with interstitial lung disease. “This will help me get there.”

Before her diagnosis, Kubin hiked in High Park regularly and feels getting outside is as important to her mental health as it is for her physical wellbeing.

“Nature is a healer. Nature restores you, it’s a healing thing,” she said.

Catteral says many others feel the same way as Kubin and he’s seen it first-hand.

“We’ve had many passengers with dementia that have gotten on the bike and you see a spark reignited in them and it’s an amazing thing to see,” he says.

Others have been able to discover parts of their own neighbourhoods for the first time.

“We took a couple of ladies who lived probably 500 metres from the Humber River and they didn’t even know the river was there – they’d never been down there,” he said. “They were just astonished and amazed at the riverside trail … it was really great.”

Catteral hopes the program will catch on and spread across the city so that more people who may have become isolated due to age or mobility issues can engage with their surroundings and their community.

“Before this pandemic, there was a pandemic of loneliness. There’s a need for people to interact — it’s a basic social need that’s often overlooked,” he said.

The trishaw costs $9,500 and CWA Toronto has been raising funds to pay for it over the past five years. While rides are free, donations are accepted to help the program truly get rolling.

“We’d like to get to a point where we can have bikes in all different parts of the city and match pilots up with seniors that want to go out for rides,” said Catteral.