From April 2021, the Cycling All Years project of the Fietsersbond will be entirely in the hands of the new Cycling All Years Foundation, founded by a group of enthusiastic volunteers. With this organizational change, the threshold for starting a new local initiative and for joining the national community should become smaller, so that the objective 'A lifetime of wind through your hair' can be realized for more elderly people.

The volunteers of Fietsen Alle Jaren take two vulnerable or no longer mobile people at a time for a bike ride in a rickshaw. A warm-hearted but simple act that anyone can do. By All Years, we mean that life doesn't end at a certain age, and we embrace what each generation has to offer through something as simple as cycling. Volunteer drivers go out in a rickshaw together with one or two passengers, for example along places where they used to live and work. Along the way, passengers share their memories with each other and with the driver.

15 locations

At the moment, rickshaws are already operating at 15 locations in our country. In a number of cities there are even several rickshaws driving around. Originally the idea comes from Denmark, where the rickshaws have become a huge success within a few years. The initiative has since been launched in many countries under the umbrella of Cycling Without Age. Boi Huisman took the initiative to his hometown of Nijmegen, after which the Fietsersbond adopted the project in 2016. This is how the Dutch Cycling All Years community began to take shape and volume. In the summer of 2018, the New Mobility Foundation enabled a smart digital booking and management system to be launched, giving volunteers more time to cycle instead of busy with planning and organizing work.

Simplification

In recent years, the Fietsersbond has, with a lot of help from volunteers, tried to grow the project and drive rickshaws in more municipalities. The search for sufficient funding, time and volunteers often turned out to be a major stumbling block. Via the new Stichting Fietsen Alle Years, set up entirely by volunteers, it will be easier to start a new initiative and there are good opportunities to give more elderly people a feeling of the wind in their hair in the coming years. 

The Cycling All Years Foundation would like to thank the Fietsersbond for the important role of starting up the project in the Netherlands and hopes to continue this in the coming years. Marion Scholten, chairman of Stichting Fietsen Alle Jaren, is hopeful: “I look forward to being able to enthuse people with our team for this wonderful volunteer work, in the hope of welcoming them to our foundation. Feeling the wind blow through your hair every year seems so obvious, but it is not for everyone. We like to climb on the bike for this! ”

Photo above: Fietsersbond (Photographer Babs Witteman).

Also read: SunRider: the solar cargo e-bike