Cycling Without Age North Shore will be offering free rides on the Spirit Trail to mobility challenged people starting on May 10th from The Boat House in Ambleside Park.
We have ordered two additional trishaws, which will be delivered in late June, and we intend then to offer a full program of free rides on the Spirit Trail and Green Necklace, COVID-19 permitting.
Cycling Without Age North Shore is a program operated by volunteers through Silver Harbour Seniors’ Activity Centre and supported by the West Vancouver Seniors’ Activity Centre. We have been provided bases at Park Royal and by the City of North Vancouver at Mahon Park.
We plan to offer group rides from The Boat Shed in Ambleside Park, The Shipyards at Lonsdale Quay and the gazebo at the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve (LSCR) trailhead. Groups of people will ride by bus or car to these locations, from where we will arrange rides for up to 4 passengers at a time, while the balance of the group socializes. We also offer rides from the doors of care homes, if they can be safely reached from one of our bases.
Those we are not able to reach and people living in their own homes will be offered free rides from pick up points, which include our bases, The Boat Shed, The Shipyards and other conveniently located coffee shops.
To book rides, care residences are invited to contact us to discuss arrangements for booking group excursions and rides on behalf of their residents. People living in their own homes will be offered rides later in the year. When this service is available a telephone number, which they can call to contact a booking agent, will be displayed on our website.
We are recruiting and training pilots right now. We are also seeking bus drivers and additional management team members. Anyone interested in joining our team is invited to contact us by email.
With care homes spread out across the North Shore and with the shortage of space where we could locate permanent bases, we are purchasing a cargo trailer, at a cost of $6,000, to serve as a mobile base. This will allow us to access the LSCR and service many more care homes by taking the trishaws to our passengers’ door. Delivery is expected in late summer.
Please visit our web site for more information. https://www.cyclingwithoutage.ca/northshore
We can be reached at northshore@cyclingwithoutage.ca or at (604) 813-5526
Ian Rose-Innes is a retired engineer who started the local chapter of Cycling Without Age on the North Shore
