Recognizing that the bicycle can play a role in age-friendly transportation, the City of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition (MassBike) are each working to bring to scale recent pilots supporting older adults in biking. After piloting bike programming for older adults last year using a mini-grant and unspent funds, Cambridge has set aside funds in the general city budget to operate the program again this year. Building on webinars held last year in partnership with AARP, MassBike is scheduling in-person
events for this summer.
Cambridge initially developed its program in response to community feedback. After receiving quite a few inquiries from older adults about biking, the City’s Community Development Department partnered with the Council on Aging to launch a survey of older adults in late 2019 to identify what barriers were preventing older adults from biking. Three main barriers emerged: physical inability to ride, lack of access to a bike, and fear of traffic – and the City set about designing a program to address all three.
That program kicked off in fall 2020 with a four-part webinar series held in collaboration with MassBike on Healthy Aging and Bicycling. Even after the webinar series was over, Cambridge continued to host monthly virtual meetings so attendees could connect with each other and build community. The City also ran a 12-week “Power Pedal” Zoom fitness class over the winter, where an instructor specializing in older adult fitness led participants through exercises to help them gain and maintain the balance and strength needed for biking. In summer 2021, Cambridge partnered with MassBike to run four on-bike clinics to help older adults practice getting on and off the bike and assess grip strength for braking. The City also ran weekly summer bike rides to offer older adults a supportive, social opportunity to practice. “We designed it to be a supportive, long-term program, not just a series of one-off events,” explains Adi Philson, Mobility Education Coordinator for Cambridge. “Some people started not knowing how to ride, and by the end they were participating every week in the weekly bike ride. It was really exciting to see the program help people get back on bikes who otherwise would not have been able to ride.”
Excited about the success in Cambridge, MassBike was eager to bring the programming to scale statewide and partnered with AARP on two webinars on age-friendly biking in 2021. “In the last four years, we have embarked on a new focus on those who have traditionally been left out of bike culture,” explains Galen Mook, Executive Director of MassBike. “So that means we are thinking about racial justice, environmental justice, and older adults.” Seeing educational programming as key to supporting older adults in the short term, Mook has shared the webinar recordings – they were broadcast on Gloucester’s local cable access station, for example – and MassBike is planning in-person events this summer. In the longer term, Mook sees great potential for e-bikes to more systemically address some of the barriers older adults face in biking. MassBike received an
Act4All grant to promote e-bike adoption among older adults and low-income populations Worcester.
