Cycling Without Age is a movement started in 2012 by Ole Kassow. 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 rickshaw and he started offering free bike rides to the local nursing home residents.
He then got in touch with a civil society consultant, Dorthe Pedersen, at the municipality of Copenhagen, who was intrigued by the idea and together they bought the first 5 rickshaws and launched Cycling Without Age, which has now spread to all corners of Denmark, Norway, and it’s now taking off in several countries around the world.
Volunteers sign up for bike rides with the elderly through a simple booking system as often or as rarely as they want to. It’s all driven by the volunteers’ own motivation. At present (April 2015) more than 50 municipalities in Denmark and Norway offer Cycling Without Age from well over 300 rickshaws – and the numbers are still growing. More than 2,000 volunteers ensure that the elderly get out of their nursing homes, out on the bikes to enjoy the fresh air and the community around them. They give them the right to wind in their hair.
Volunteers sign up for bike rides with the elderly through a simple booking system as often or as rarely as they want to. It’s all driven by the volunteers’ own motivation. At present (April 2015) more than 50 municipalities in Denmark and Norway offer Cycling Without Age from well over 300 rickshaws – and the numbers are still growing. More than 2,000 volunteers ensure that the elderly get out of their nursing homes, out on the bikes to enjoy the fresh air and the community around them. They give them the right to wind in their hair.
For further information:
We are working on spreading the movement to other countries, and as soon they are onboard, they will be listed here, for volunteers to sign up. Stay tuned.
Country websites:
Cykling uden alder, Denmark
Sykling uten alder, Norway
Radeln ohne Alter, Switzerland
Cykling utan ålder, Sweden
Ole Kassow
+45 31 34 19 80
ole@cyclingwithoutage.org
Dorthe Pedersen
+45 21 28 01 74
dorthe@cyklingudenalder.dk
Lærke Ullerup
+45 53 70 30 33
ullerup@cyklingudenalder.dk
Anne Louise Ahlburg, Journalist
+45 28 57 97 56
louise@cyklingudenalder.dk.