Maynooth Cycling Campaign is delighted to reveal that before Christmas, it ordered a Danish trishaw as part of Cycling Without Age (CWA) in Kildare. Cycling Without Age is an international community based movement which enables the elderly or people with mobility problems to enjoy the pleasures of cycling by riding a trishaw although they may not be physically able to cycle on their own. A trishaw is a cross between a tricycle and a rickshaw which carries a pilot and two passengers. The pilot controls the trishaw and brings the passengers to a park,  along a greenway or just around their local town.

We are grateful for financial assistance from Kildare Sports Partnership, Kildare County Council and Healthy Ireland for its purchase. Delivery is due in March – before St. Patrick’s Day. We propose to use the trishaw at weekends so are looking for a number of people to volunteer as pilots. If you are interested, email us at maynoothcycling@gmail.com.  Training is provisionally arranged for early March. We have had preliminary discussions with Genil Training/St. John of God regarding use of the trishaw Monday to Friday. The one outstanding problem is somewhere to store the trishaw. We have raised the matter with Maynooth University and are hoping that they will grant us permission to store it in one of their secure bike sheds but to date this has not been confirmed.

Cycling Without Age was started by Ole Kassow in Copenhagen 2012.  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 trishaw and he started offering free bike rides to the local nursing home residents. It spread from Copenhagen across Denmark and then went international. Now it has a presence in more than 50 countries with over 3,700 trishaws and 35,000 trained pilots.

It was established in Ireland in 2017 by Clara Clarke in Dun Laoghaire but now there are over 70 CWA trishaws in locations including Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, Blanchardstown, Clonakilty, Wexford Town, Cashel and Tipperary. Next month Maynooth will join that list.