You Can Ride 2: Adapted Bicycle Loan Pool Database

The Cause

“You Can Ride 2 (YCR2): Borrow-a-bike” is an adapted bicycle loan pool which provides bikes on loan to children whose special needs make it challenging for them to ride a 2-wheel bicycle. This free service empowers children with the freedom to ride with their families. The program launched in 2013 and loaned out over 40 bikes in its first year, and over 100 bikes in 2015.

YCR2 is a partnership between pediatric physiotherapists and occupational therapists and the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters Society (EBC). Many other community partners help to make this program possible. The collaboration of therapists with a background working with children with special needs and those passionate about cycling has made this program the success it is today.

YCR2 has a goal to help communities across the province offer similar services. In order to reach this goal, and to scale to meet our existing growth challenges, YCR2 needs to develop a software database to help manage our fleet of custom adapted bicycles.

This project will create a registration, inventory, and loan management and booking system designed for easy-use by therapists and families, so therapists can focus on fitting kids with adapted bicycles and families can focus on sharing the joy of riding together.

This software development project will allow You Can Ride 2 and any organization with similar needs to manage its loan fleet with easily available, affordable (or free) hardware using free, open-source software.

Who Will it Benefit?

The primary beneficiaries of YCR2\'s programs are children with special needs between the ages of 2-18 and their families.

The users of this software will be both families (booking bicycles and fittings) and therapists (managing inventory, registrations, waiting lists, events and volunteers).

Currently, much of this work is done manually, which becomes increasingly onerous and error-prone as the program grows and more families are served.

Though the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters Society (EBC) operates mainly in the Edmonton area, You Can Ride 2 has a wider target area and benefits children across the province. Ideally, the YCR2 Adapted Bicycle Loan Pool program will become more widespread across the country with the improvement of the resources and strengthening of our community of practice. We hope to share our resources on how to set up an adapted bicycle loan pool so that other provinces can recreate our efforts.