Delivery of Trishaw

Maynooth Cycling Campaign took possession of the Trio trishaw in early March and launched it publically at the St. Patricks Day Parade.

Training of Pilots

As we had 8-10  volunteer pilots, the first priority was training. We contacted Clara Clark who first set up the first Cycling Without Age chapter in Ireland in Dun Laoghaire. It took number of weeks to arrange a date that would suit volunteers in Maynooth and at the same time suit Clara. Training was eventually arranged for Saturday 27^th May but only three were able to make the training . The Cycling Without Age manager received training some weeks later.

Currently, we have five people who have received  training to operate the trishaw and who are confident to take out members of the public. Four are pilots.

With a number of pilots fully trained, our second priority was to start offering cycles to the people who were unable to cycle on their own. After that, we planned to concentrate on increasing the availability of pilots.

We brought the trishaw to the Picnic in the Park which was organised by Maynooth Community Council and Kildare County Council (Climate Action Section). The objective was to publicise the trishaw and to offer cycles to members of the public without having to book.

Software

Maynooth Cycling Campaign proposes to use Book2Go software  – an internet based booking system which was developed by Copenhagen Cycles to manage pilots and bookings. It is an email based system. Final details have still to be confirmed.

Reporting System

We developed a reporting procedure for pilots to highlight either safety or mechanical concerns.

The report also records key data such as distance travelled and battery condition.

Open for Business

Maynooth Cycling Without Age opened for bookings on Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays from the start of August.

We have been in contact with Maynooth Access Group, Celbridge Access Group and Kildare Access Group to inform them of our operations. We have also contacted Maynooth Lodge Nursing Home, Moyglare Nursing Home and Parke House Nursing Home in Kilcock. We have had discussions with Maynooth Library and they agreed to make booking for people who prefer to book in person rather than via a smart phone or tablet.

For a number of reasons, we have not been in recent contact with Genil Training – St. John of God re use of the trishaw between Monday and Friday.

Next Steps

The next steps are to as follows:

• Increase publicity and public awareness of Cycling Without Age
• Organise a “Train the Trainer” session.
• Organise a training session for the volunteer pilots who haven’t received training yet.
• Organise a training session for John of God pilots.

Acknowledgement of Contribution

We would like to thank Kildare County Council, Kildare Sports Partnership and Healthy Ireland who have contributed financial support towards the purchase of the trishaw. Kildare County Council has also allocated funding for ongoing costs during the year from the Kildare Community Fund and from the Local Property Tax.

We are also grateful to Maynooth University for permission to store the trishaw on their premises.