Next RideCivil is 8/8 at Westlake Center, 5:30 PM

With all the (well deserved) concern over the recent Aloha Incident on this month’s Critical Mass lots of people have been wondering what they can do to promote civility, cooperation and good feelings between motorists, pedestrians and cyclists. I’m sure there are many good ideas, but please take the opportunity to demonstrate your civility on our next RideCivil ride.

Note: RideCivil doesn’t cork or block traffic, and I’m not at all clear where KPLU heard that we do. Thanks to Byron for the plug on KUOW.

Meet at: Westlake Center park
When: Starting around 5:30, but generally not departing until 6:15. Aug 8 (2nd Friday of the month)
Route, Destination, Duration and Pace: Determined by participants, including a post-ride sit down someplace with food and drink. We usually ride more than an hour at a no-body-left-behind social pace.

Last question before the break: Why? First and foremost, everybody should have the chance at a group ride downtown to show the city we’re here. RideCivil’s a chance to do this and show the city that we can get along just fine. Plus, it’s fun, safe, a great way to see the city, and meet your cycling community.

My intention with RideCivil isn’t to replace Critical Mass – Critical Mass has it’s crowd (which includes me), and it’s place, but it just doesn’t serve a lot of the cycling community. I routinely run into people who would enjoy a fun, group ride down town but don’t want to be involved in blocking traffic. Sure, there are lots of other rides you can go on but there’s something great about a friday evening, smile-and-wave (which is our main tactic by the way), wind-down ride in Seattle’s lovely down-town, especially time of year.

It’s even better that you can make cycling a bit safer for all of us (motorists, of which I’m also one, cyclists and pedestrians) by showing ourselves to be out there, in traffic. Best of all, we get the chance to show a street full of cars how to do it cooperatively and well: 2 abreast, signalling, respectfully taking the lane where we need it, yeilding to pedestrains.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

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