Note: This post has been adapted from a presentation made at this year's California Bike Summit.
Local governments and organizations have a big role to play in transportation, and there are many ways they can make it easier for people to stay active as they grow older. Below are three stories about removing obstacles for seniors so that they can utilize more active and public transportation and become more involved as both mobility and climate advocates.
Bike-Share Done Right
Bike-share is a great way to introduce people to biking; it is also a wonderful way to see a new city, if it's done right and if a city has safe bike infrastructure. I have always felt a bit "meh" about bike-share - I have my own bike, and use it a lot. But then I had the opportunity to travel to Taiwan, and there I fell in love with bike-share.
It was easy, it was cheap, and the bikes are ubiquitous. I never once got a bad or broken bike or had a glitch with payments. YouBike, Taiwan's system, is owned and maintained by Giant, and the same service is available in all the cities along the west of the country. Public transit in Taiwan uses a tap card called "Easy Card," which is well-named. It's the same card you use for YouBike, and registering it on the YouBike website was super easy; even I could do it, with limited tech skills and no Mandarin at all.
Bike-share bikes are usually heavy, which to me feels solid and easier to balance on. I am accustomed to my own bike, which is lighter, so there is a degree of awkwardness - at first - but it dissipates quickly. Bike-share bikes are step-through bikes, meaning they have a low middle bar, which is a huge advantage for seniors as well as many newer riders. It makes getting on and off the bike much easier, especially for anyone with even a slight mobility problem. Using bike-share can relieve anxiety about theft, which can be a disincentive to seniors (especially those on a fixed income). And bike-share bikes usually come equipped with baskets and lights, making it easier to carry things and get around at night without having to wear a backpack.
As for riding in Taiwan: It is not considered strange to see all kinds of people riding bicycles, but my comfort level varied from place to place. Taipei, the capital, is relatively flat. There are many bike-share stands and a lot of people coming and going on the bikes. Nevertheless, I found the streets a bit intimidating, and scads of motor scooters compete for street and sidewalk space. The bike-share system also offers e-bikes, first come first served, for the same price as the regular bikes.
Bike-share is something that we haven’t put to our advantage enough in this country. We need to make it easier and cheaper. We also need to create a smoother integration with our transit systems by eliminating extra cards: one card should do everything.
It’s also a solution to a bigger, very American, problem about always wanting to own everything. For seniors who are trying to downsize, who are trying to live more simply, or who just want to try out biking without having to make a big investment, bike-share is a tool that communities could be much more creative in promoting and utilizing.
Multimodal Travel: Combining Bikes with Buses and Trains
While being able to take your bike with you on a bus is a great convenience, it's not always very easy. For example, not everyone can hoist their bikes onto bus racks. You may wait for a bus only to find that the rack is full, or difficult to access. There is also real reason to worry about theft.
At Women on Bikes Culver City, we annually schedule a visit to Culver City Bus headquarters, and they let us pepper a bus driver with questions: about passing on the road, about sharing the bus lane, anything. Then we go outside and practice putting bikes on and taking them off the racks mounted on a bus. We try to practice all the potential configurations, including needing to lower the rack, what to do if the only available space is on the inside of another bike, and the like.
It’s always a good learning experience, and people come away from that visit feeling more confident about trying a combined bike/bus trip. But to be honest, I still don’t want to hoist my bike up onto the rack - and also have to get it off - especially if it is peak travel time. It can be nerve wracking under the best of circumstances, and you don't want to slow down the bus.
However, I highly recommend bringing senior groups together with your bus agency. Even if it doesn’t dramatically increase the numbers of seniors who put their bikes on the racks, it helps to connect our communities and to develop rapport. Our talks with bus drivers have definitely broken down barriers so people feel less vulnerable while on the street, and I think they also make them more likely to take transit.
Making it abundantly clear to all that seniors - and all bike riders - are welcome on transit requires other strategies as well. For example, simply making better signage.
I frequently ride the L.A. Metro E Line to get to medical appointments, so I am familiar with the routine. But there are still unnecessary obstacles to a stress-free experience. As the train approaches, you hear a voice over the intercom telling passengers with bikes to use the door with the bike decal. The cars are whipping by and the sticker is something like five inches square—who are you kidding? It might as well be written in invisible ink.
Then, if you can successfully chase down the right door and board the train, you find there is room for two, maybe three bikes - and sometimes it's already full. But too late! Because the train is departing.
What I have been observing more and more often is that people with bikes just get on the train wherever they can. This can be a problem when people are trying to exit the train, with or without a bike. But what else can they do?
In some countries, the bike car is marked with a bike graphic that takes up the entire side of the car, and there is no doubt about where you should go. Why be understated about this? Above is a photo from Denmark, where they make it super obvious to everyone which one is the bike car. It also makes it very easy for people who might want to avoid the bike door to do so.
Once you get inside, the L.A. Metro cars have been designed to help everyone get in and out efficiently. The "bike" cars are also great for people with strollers, luggage, and large packages.
Resilience
Last summer I broke my arm. Yes, it was a bike fall – no car involved, 100 percent user error.
Here is a photo of me at our family reunion a few days after my fall—looking pretty happy. I think it was right after we made - and ate - a lot of sushi. But honestly, I was really embarrassed about that cast. I’ve set myself up as a leader and a model for women, showing that you can be an urban cyclist even if you’re older, that it's easy, and healthy, and fun to use your bike for transportation and not just recreation.
But then a friend of mine told me not to worry. "You don’t have to feel bad," she said, "because as soon as you are healed you’ll get back up on your bike - and that’s the important thing."
She was right, of course. We all know there will be bumps along the way - hopefully not everyone will break bones, but we all experience setbacks. The question is, how do we encourage our senior population - and all of us - to keep going? How do we encourage each other to keep learning and growing, without judgment but with lots of joy?
After I broke my arm, I also got COVID (I think from being in the ER), then I had to have surgery, and I was kind of a mess for awhile. I couldn’t ride my bike or drive, even if I had wanted to. I could, however, walk and take transit, and I did lots of both.
Several years ago, as my partner and I took care of our mothers into their senior years, we saw with great sadness that when they had to give up their drivers’ licenses they lost all sense of independence. Shortly thereafter, their mental and physical health took a discernible turn for the worse.
We decided then that we needed to find a different way of aging, one that didn't prioritize driving.
I would encourage us all to think of our active transportation communities as being inclusive to all age groups. Exercise, being outdoors, having fun, being adaptable, having independence, engaging in local issues - and, yes, being resilient - are beneficial to everyone.
I would encourage people in their 40s and 50s to start now - get hooked on active transportation, so losing the ability to drive won't come as a big shock later in life.
Encourage the full range of cargo bikes, family bikes, e-bikes, road bikes, bike-share, and adult three-wheelers in your community and on your group rides. We have so many choices now, and we need to make all of these options more equitably available.
I firmly believe that we are all, whatever our age, capable of doing a lot more.
Overcome fear with kindness. Be consistent, be gentle, be patient.
And ride your bike.
