The Scotsman

Free bike tours set for roll-out

- By CHRIS GREEN

0 Two local residents are given a ride in a trishaw courtesy of a volunteer from Cycling Without Age in The sight of elderly people enjoying the open air on a free bicylce tour could soon become a common sight in Scotland after ministers decided to fund a national extension of a pilot scheme.

The Cycling Without Age project in Falkirk has proved highly successful, with a video clip of the idea in action generating huge interest online.

The scheme sees volunteer cyclists picking up elderly people from their houses or care homes and taking them for a spin on a trishaw, a threewheel­ed vehicle used in some countries as taxis.

The Falkirk project has been running since March with a team of around 30 people and was featured on the BBC3 series Amazing Humans last month. A clip of the project, showing 20-year-old volunteer Fraser Johnston taking care home resident Mary Duncan for a bike ride, was viewed more than 20 million times in five days.

The pilot scheme was given £36,000 by the Scottish Government and the EU’S European Social Fund, but ministers have decided to

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