Spreading the Love of Cycling, Three Wheels and One Film at a Time

“I didn’t retire; I just rewired,” said John Seigel Boettner, who retired from Santa Barbara Middle School and quickly found his next classroom on wheels taking seniors across the community on trishaw rides through town. 

Sharing his passion for the outdoors and the wonders of experiencing it through a bike ride quickly grew into the Santa Barbara chapter of Cycling Without Age. Modeled after a program founded in Denmark, the local chapter he founded (his official title is “Cycling Good Fairy”) now has 10 trishaws and 50 volunteer pilots, providing more than 25 rides every week from Goleta to Montecito.

It was actually some Santa Barbara Middle School parents (the school has an outdoor education model, which has biking as a key component) who told Seigel Boettner about Cycling Without Age. “They said you should check out this dude in Copenhagen who started this program where he takes people who can’t pedal anymore on bike rides. So, I watched his TED Talk [see it at bit.ly/471pm7D] and it was all over. I said, ‘Oh, shoot, here’s my next chapter,’” he laughed.

“I’ve taken kids home from the hospital and … I have taken people to their graves. You know, why not? You know, why not bike from the day one to your first ride to your last one.”

John and his wife, Lynn (a longtime teacher at Vieja Valley), invested in a trishaw, the three-wheeled pedal assist vehicles used for rides. “We put up the money ourselves, and I figured what was going to happen is, I’m going to be this nice old guy taking even older people out for rides, and I could pat myself on the back,” he laughs.

“When I started the program, just me and the trishaw, I had no idea how powerful it was going to be. I had no idea what it was like to pedal a 101-year-old woman around Santa Barbara,” said Seigel Boettner, who grew up on the Westside. “If you’ve ever had a 101-year-old hold your hands and kiss you goodbye. I mean, that was it. I could’ve gone to heaven, right then. … I saw the power of it on what we call our riding partners.”

My own mom has delightedly gone on these rides regularly since she’s been staying at Mariposa, one of 11 residential communities that Cycling Without Age serves in town, so I can testify to how powerful the rides are. 

They are available to serve “anyone who wants to go for a ride,” says Seigel Boettner, especially seniors who don’t have the money to stay in residential facilities.

“Probably the most powerful thing for me is the impact on the community of when we ride through a neighborhood — people are rolling down their windows and waving, and we’re waving back, and old people are this bridge to saying hello again that we’ve lost. We don’t do that anymore,” said Seigel Boettner.

There are many ways to spread the word about Cycling Without Age, one of which is the new documentary film about the project, which will have its West Coast premiere at the Lobero Theatre on September 7. Produced and directed by Seigel Boettner’s sons, filmmaker brothers Isaac Seigel Boettner and Jacob Seigel Brielle of Pedal Born Pictures, the film had its world premiere, to much acclaim, at the Danish Film Institute in Copenhagen, and U.S. Premiere at the Indy Shorts International Film Festival, where it won the Lens of Hope Award. 

The idea is really to help spread the movement even wider, said John Seigel Boettner, who will be part of a panel discussion after the screening of the 27-minute documentary with the filmmakers, along with leaders in the aging community, moderated by Roman Baratiak.  

“Here in Santa Barbara, when we’re riding, we have people pull over in cars who don’t even know us, who want to take our picture. And if that’s what Cycling Without Age can stir up in communities, just that we say hello again and smile and do that, that’s one of the reasons we made this film,” said Seigel Boettner. “[Cycling Without Age] is really not that difficult. It’s really hugely impactful on every neighborhood, for people who are aging, for people who still can pedal, and for people just walking their dog down the street — and we need that. We’re looking for ways to put America back together again.”

Cycling Without Age, the film, was shot on the streets and bike paths of Santa Barbara, with the support of MOVE Santa Barbara County, Heritage House, and Cotopaxi. The screening event takes place at the Lobero Theatre (33 E. Canon Perdido St.) on Saturday, September 7, at 6 p.m. 

For more information and tickets, see lobero.org. View the trailer at bit.ly/4cD6ux2. Learn more about the nonprofit at cwasb.org.