It is well established that improving levels of physical activity, especially among those who are least active, is beneficial for physical and mental health and wellbeing, but what is the potential for other social or life-enabling benefits to surface through the act of riding or learning to ride a bike? In otherwords, what else can bikes do?
These are the kinds of questions that researchers in the Moving Bodies Lab have been asking of a skills-based e-bike programme being delivered in Walker – an area of high socioeconomic deprivation in Newcastle.
Since July 2024, Cassie Phoenix, Emily Tupper and David Martin (Visiting Fellow) have joined the weekly bike sessions to observe how they are run, and to ride alongside the participants. In December, this culminated in a creatively facilitated ‘journey’ themed workshop, where riders were invited to reflect on and share their experiences of the bike programme through an optional group ride, and practical map-making activity.
Led by the Moving Bodies Lab, this is a collaborative project between The Practice, Off the Grid Adventures (programme delivery) and the Walker Medical Group in Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne.
