Windsor Tandem Cycling Club
Bike Sharing
It may seem like an impossible concept - how could someone with vision
impairments safely ride a bicycle?
For the Windsor Tandem Cycling Club, impossible wasn’t a word in their
vocabulary.
With a focus on recreational cycling, the non-profit organization allows those with
vision impairments to enjoy the benefits of cycling. The WTCC seeks to break
barriers, connecting sighted riders with vision-impaired riders, to create a cohesive
ride. Finding that social based community activities, like group rides, often
unintentionally excluded those with vision impairments, the WTCC developed their
program to bring like-minded people outdoors together.
The Downtown Windsor
Community Collaborative is dedicated
to making the downtown core of
Windsor a better place to live and
work. Their goal is to nurture
neighbourhood growth through a
variety of projects. One of their current
projects is a bike share program.
Monday to Thursday from 9:30
a.m. to noon and 5:00 p.m. to 8:00
p.m., the DWCC offers a free program
for borrowing bikes. Using Bruce
Avenue Park as their hub, the
volunteer-staffed program provides
opportunities for downtown residents
without access to a bike of their own to
commute to work, work out, or ride for
fun.
Bike-sharing is a concept that
begin in Europe in the 1960s, and
many bike share programs rely on a
smartphone application or similar
technology for mapping their use.
Some bike share programs in China
have more than 90,000 bicycles
available for borrowing. DWCC runs
Windsor’s first bike-share program,
but there have been recent talks
between Bike Windsor-Essex and the
University of Windsor for expanded
programs.
The American Journal of Public
Health, using a study based on a
Montreal bike share program, found
an increase in commuter and
recreational cycling when bicycles
were made readily available through a
sharing program. Developing more
docking stations throughout Windsor
Essex would allow for a wider spread
of the existing program.