We came, we rode, we smiled (and waved). August’s Ridecivil was a smash success – we had about 30 riders, news coverage by the major outlets, a ton of fun, and no traffic conflicts.
We also learned a ton about how to conduct a large ride like this. Before we left the park I asked the riders to take responsibility for their own riding, for keeping the group as a whole together, and to agree to a few basic principals and goals. I have to admit, my little speech didn’t instantly convert the crew into a synchronized cycling team, but we kept it together across many red lights, merges and turns. Big thanks to all the riders for this, especially the leads and sweeps.
I was really pleased with the good vibes the whole group was giving off too, lots of smiling and waving, shout outs from the street, we got a couple name checks from pedestrians and the messenger crowd. We even ran into (OK, were over taken by) a herd of about a hundred scooterists on their way to a bar, and managed to share the road and a few laughs as they scooted past.
I’ll be posting a few more details over on ridecivil.org when we get the blog up. Photos are in the Bikehugger urban bikes pool.
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