Christina Allen has a three-wheeled bike built for passengers, about 2,000 miles a year in her legs and a standing offer for any St. Mary’s County senior or person with a disability who would like a ride: It is free, and she wants more people to take her up on it.
Allen founded Cycling Without Age St. Mary’s County in 2019 and pedals a trishaw, a rickshaw-style tricycle that seats passengers up front while she pedals from behind. She told the county’s Transportation Advisory Committee on Oct. 15 that the program has more capacity than riders.
“I thought people would be beating the door down,” she said. Instead, she said, she sometimes has to coax people into trying it.
How it works
Cycling Without Age is an international program that began in Copenhagen, Denmark, where Allen trained. She said it has more than 3,600 chapters worldwide and that hers was the first in Maryland. It launched shortly before COVID-19 shut chapters down worldwide, since seniors were among the most vulnerable early in the pandemic.
The trishaw carries two passengers, or one larger person, while Allen pedals behind. It has an awning for sun, a blanket for cool weather and a footrest that lowers to the ground for riders who cannot stand easily, including some who use wheelchairs. With three wheels, she said, it cannot tip over, and she has trained in handling a fully loaded trishaw over curbs.
One of the program’s few rules is that rides are always free. Allen said she turns down money even when people press it on her. One man, she said, asked her five times whether she really wanted nothing in return.
Passengers do not have to be seniors. Allen said she has taken young people with disabilities, blind and deaf riders and a woman with Down syndrome. Rides can be just for fun or for errands such as the supermarket, post office or farmers market, which is easy to reach from the Three Notch Trail. Some coffee shops along the way give riders a free cup, she said.
She can pick riders up at home if they live in a safe, bike-friendly neighborhood, meet them at the Three Notch Trail or have them come to her in the Lexington Park area. Most rides are 20 miles or less, though her longest topped 30 miles. She avoids rush hour, especially on roads, but is otherwise flexible because she is self-employed.
Bringing generations along
Some of Allen’s favorite rides bring family along. A relative can ride with a parent from a nursing home, she said, and she once took an older man on oxygen out with his granddaughter. One regular, a grandmother of seven, has made it a goal to ride with each grandchild.
“I think seniors should have some good memories now, not always looking back,” Allen said. The point, she said, is connecting the community and treating people who are confined a little better.
Looking for partners
Allen is the program’s only trained pilot. She once pictured three trishaws, with chapters in the northern county, Leonardtown and the Lexington Park area, and more volunteers. But she said she would rather pedal than administer, so the program will stay a one-woman operation until others step up.
In other states, she said, towns and nursing homes buy their own trishaws and recruit volunteers to pedal residents. Here, she said, she has had little support from towns or nursing homes, some of which will not take five minutes to bring a resident outside. She has left information with one local organization at least four times without hearing back, she said.
Committee members asked how they could help. One suggested Southern Maryland Community Resources, which serves people with disabilities, and offered to connect her. Asked about liability, Allen said the program is insured and riders sign a waiver required by the insurer.
Riders, families and caregivers can find the program on Facebook by searching for Cycling Without Age, St. Mary’s County, or CWASMC, and can reach Allen there to arrange a ride.
