Toyota unveils the world’s first Hybrid Skate Park

The park aims to drive social inclusion and help create new mixed sporting communities

21/09/2018

Toyota Wheel Park is the first accessible wheel park that brings together both adaptive and non-adaptive wheeled action sports into a single facility. The park ties in with Toyota’s call to “Start Your Impossible”, the belief that when we are free to move, anything is possible. Designed with the needs of athletes with a physical impairment in mind, it aims to drive social inclusion and help create new mixed sporting communities.

Ever Better Mobility For All

With the unveiling of the world’s first Hybrid Skate Park, Toyota reinforces its commitment to delivering ever better mobility for all. As part of its shift from a car company to a mobility company, Toyota has been engaging in long term global partnerships with the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Toyota has launched a global call to action, called “Start Your Impossible”. It has also started other mobility initiatives such as the Universal Street Games or the Toyota Mobility Project.

To support this approach, the Toyota Wheel Park project aims to bring a smile to multiple generations. It wants to unlock the power of the wheel to transform the way people interact with each other and the world around us.

“The BNKR Toyota Wheel Park is a project that is inspired by Toyota´s global movement called “Start Your Impossible”. This call to action encourages every one of us to take the first step to transform the world around us, by overcoming limitations. Toyota Motor Italia is taking the first step by opening the Wheel Park in partnership with BNKR – ASD Enjoy More. Toyota will follow with more locations throughout Europe. This is a first for Toyota, and is symbolic of Toyota’s vision of “Ever Better Mobility for All”. Toyota's vision is to offer integrated mobility solutions to everyone, including those with physical impairments, ensuring an increasingly inclusive society.”

Mauro Caruccio, CEO of Toyota Motor Italia

More than just a skate park

Toyota’s Wheel Park in Rome is more than just a skate park. Within a single facility, it brings together a number of wheeled Freesports, including BMX (Bicycle Moto Cross), the newest Olympic sport Skateboarding and one of the youngest action sports on the planet, WCMX (WheelChair Moto Cross). Designed with the needs of athletes with a physical impairment in mind, the park aims to drive social inclusion, urban regeneration and help create new mixed sporting communities.

“The “Start Your Impossible” campaign shows people that just because we have a physical impairment doesn't mean it's going to stop us. Toyota says that when we are free to move, anything is possible and their hybrid skate park proves this. I'm really excited that Toyota is fully behind WCMX and is helping people to get into this awesome sport by giving others the chance to try it out at BNKR. With Toyota’s help hopefully we can show the world the potential of WCMX, and that the wheelchair isn’t just a mobility device, but truly a piece of sports equipment, like a skateboard or a BMX.”

Toyota WCMX athlete Lilly Rice

A unique way of seeing the world

Whether on two wheels or four, sitting or standing, practitioners of wheeled action sports share a unique way of seeing the world. They have a way of turning the act of getting from A to B, into a moment of creative self-expression, freedom and fun that can serve as an inspiration to us all. Toyota is proud to have been able to partner with Rome’s Bunker (BNKR) Skate park to introduce the idea of a Hybrid Skate park. It is the first accessible wheel park that brings together both adaptive and non-adaptive wheeled action sports into a single facility.

When we are free to move, anything is possible.

Over the last 8 years, BNKR has helped develop and define skateboard culture in Rome, operating summer schools, skate camps, and the innovative skate therapy program. Working together, Toyota and BNKR have built on the designs developed for a test park built in Copenhagen, to ensure the park in Rome is WCMX accessible, and the promise of a Hybrid Skate park could be fulfilled.

Whether through the provision of specialist WCMX equipment allowing wheelchair-based athletes to try the sport for the first time or the design and build of new accessible ramps, Toyota has focused on removing all possible barriers to participation. This way of working brings to life the brand’s belief that when we are free to move anything is possible.