Marita’s Story – 

I recently had the privilege of meeting Marita Hayden, a resilient 74-year-old who has transformed her challenging circumstances into a story of independence and strength. Marita’s life journey is as inspiring as it is challenging. She lives with a traumatic brain injury and PTSD and relies on her bike and service dog to stay mobile, access essential services, and exercise her civic duty.

Before her brain injury, Marita worked in computer programming, teaching code to a generation eager to learn. Her accident, however, drastically altered her path. Through the hardship, she remained determined to keep moving forward, reinventing her life around her bike and public transit. Today, she uses her bike to navigate the mile-long trek to the nearest bus stop. This mile is her lifeline to the city—a stretch that connects her to the library, where she goes to vote, and then to a nearby grocery store. After casting her vote, she often bikes to yet another bus stop to reach the market and carry her groceries home.

Her love for biking goes back decades, to when her father taught her to use tools and work on her bike in the basement as a young girl. She even spent time volunteering at Austin’s Yellow Bike Project, where she helped children from underserved communities gain access to bicycles and learn basic repair skills. She was happy to hear they are still in business. 

Marita encourages anyone considering biking as transportation. “The expense of a car and the challenges of parking make a bike far more practical,” she says. Her story is a reminder that even when physical mobility is limited, bikes can provide freedom and purpose.

In one of her favorite stories, Marita talks about biking with her loyal service dog, a large white dog resembling a wolf, who would run alongside her as they explored Austin. “People would just marvel at that,” she says. She noticed how children stared with wide-eyed wonder, “and when they see a woman riding a bike with this white wolf running alongside, it imprints on them. So when they grow up, they think it’s normal for a woman to be riding with her dog.” This memory brings her great joy, as she knows it’s a small yet powerful way to inspire younger generations to see biking as an everyday mode of transportation.

Marita hopes her story encourages others to find freedom in biking. She ended our conversation by raising her fist and declaring, “If I can do it at 74, you can do it.” Her journey is a testament to resilience, determination, and the independence that a bike can bring, regardless of one’s circumstances.  I am honored to share a small part of her journey and hope her story inspires others to find the same strength and freedom that she has on two wheels.