Local bike group seeking to start Cycling Without Age chapter
Bike Stonington/Bike Groton held Van Raam trishaw demonstration
Mystic — In the parking lot of the Broadway School condos on School Street on a sunny Saturday morning, two residents signed their waivers before sitting on the passenger seats of a trishaw bike. With Alison Zack Darrell pedaling at the rear, they were off, making their way down Holmes Street and past Schooner Wharf.
Darrell works for Van Raam, a Dutch manufacturer specializing in bikes for people with disabilities. The model showcased in Mystic on Saturday is the Chat, a power-assisted, three-wheeled device “intended for cycling together with adults and/ or children who are no longer able to participate independently in traffic.”
Bike Stonington/Bike Groton is trying to establish a local chapter of Cycling Without Age, a movement in which volunteer “pilots” take the elderly or those with limited mobility out on trishaw rides. The group wants to purchase one Chat trishaw for Stonington and one for Groton, but the bikes cost about $11,000, so it will be seeking donations.
Jennifer Lacker of Bike Stonington said the purpose of the group’s demonstrations — which were held throughout Stonington on Saturday — was for her group to learn more about it, get photos and introduce it to the community.
“People really responded and enjoyed the rides,” she said. She lives in a Broadway School condominium and enlisted two other residents for the first demonstration.
Lacker recruited about 10 people she knew to try out the trishaw throughout the day. After leaving the downtown Mystic area, the bike took one couple up Cove Road and then took a few trips around Stonington Borough.
Lacker said Stonington would be a good place for a
Cycling Without Age chapter because a quarter of the population is over age 65.
“Now that the pandemic has hit, it’s even more important for mental health, isolation,” Lacker said. She also noted this program would create intergenerational connections, and another benefit would be traffic calming.
Bike Stonington board member Michael Feltes, a geriatrician, said the “goal of putting this lovely bicycle built for three out on the road” is to give seniors who may struggle just to get to their patio a chance to move about.
“The pilots are seasoned riders with no speed in mind, and the task is safety first,” Feltes said. He added, “I’m going to move from cycling independently to bringing people around with a smile.”
Feltes said Bike Stonington wants to find routes in the region and pick up seniors at their front door.
Lacker isn’t sure yet where the bikes would be kept, and she hasn’t yet set up a fundraising page. People can follow the new Mystic Cycling Without Age page on Facebook for updates.