This thread is intended to consolidate ideas from the Guerrilla Bicycle Advocacy post - http://bikecalgary.org/?q=node/1209 - and try to get some suggestions on how to bring about, organize and promote a new type of social group ride in Calgary that will have an element of bike advocacy to it.
Guidelines for the ride:
The man intent behind the ride at the moment is:
- loosely organized with no specific person in charge per se but with a ride leader who will set the pace for the ride.
- advocacy based ride, cyclists ride legally in the right hand lane, not a critical mass ride where we become traffic. Intent is to have drivers who are stopped in traffic watch cyclist after cyclist pass by easily while they are stuck waiting.
- fun social aspect, meet up at beginning and ride together, end point at bar/pub or other social gathering place where people can mingle and exchange stories.
- banners and costumes welcome, unique bikes welcome
- aimed at riders of all levels, pace to be set so that riders of non-performance bikes will easily be able to keep up and enjoy the ride.
Please refer to the aforementioned post for background on this and then add your suggestions here. This thread is meant for all kinds of suggestions however here is a short questionnaire based on some points that came up in the other post. Please add your own answers.
Questions:
1. Name
The default name at the moment seems to be 'Crowbomb', a spin-off from the famous (infamous?) weekly ride in Portland - the Zoobomb - where hoards of cyclists on all sorts of crazy bikes bomb down a long hill past the city zoo. The discussion here turned towards doing a similar thing down Crowchild Trail, then spun off from there but the name stuck. Is it a good one, maybe something more general to cover all Calgary? Eg. Calbomb, Roundup Ride... suggestions?
Perhaps different routes could have different names? The Crowbomb, Downtown Dash, Airport Shuffle...
2. Routes and Meeting Places
Again, the initial idea was to do a ride on Crowchild, either from the North or the South, down to Memorial and then east over to Kensington or into downtown somewhere. Many other ideas then came up. Hoping to get some clear and simple descriptions of some other routes in this section, and vote for your favourite route if you see one. Eg. Crowchild at the evening rush hour and Memorial as well. I know 32 ave NE and McKnight are also backed up from 19th to Deerfoot many afternoons too.
Criteria for the route should be primarily that it is predictably backed up with traffic most days at certain times. Secondly include a suggestion for a meeting area to start the ride, a suggested start time, and a recommended finish point that is hopefully close to a place to eat, drink and tell stories. Rides to not have to be very long to be fun or to make a point!
3. Banners
The intent of this ride is definitely social, but also with bicycle advocacy in mind. Cool bikes and even costumes are great to attract attention. Also perhaps a banner or two.
'Biking is Fun' for example is pretty encouraging.
'One less car' makes a statement but might not be taken well by all.
'Free Exercise' maybe?
4. Other important ideas
Whatever you think is missing, just looking for input.
wondering?
Submitted by critninja on
one of the things i find interesting about cyclists (in general) is how independent we are as individuals. basically, if you want to ride a bike in this city, you need to figure it out for yourself, you have to find your route(s) by yourself, and you have to fight your own little battles (traffic, employers, conditions, etc) by yourself, everyday. there is plenty of strength found in being independent - but when applied to bicycle advocacy and group rides - independence is a weakness.
i believe we, as cyclists in calgary, need to find a way to work together to collectively achieve the things we want individually. through working together, we can support each others ideas and concerns and "make more noise" than just one person can. this is exactly the reason Bike Calgary was created.
i guess my thought is that maybe we can use the model of the bicycle co-op as a template for this new group ride idea. everyone needs to contribute to the cause for it to work. everyone needs to take ownership of the ride as individuals but also understand that we can only make meaninful changes by working together.
lets use the mcknight thread as an example. its obvious that this section of roadway needs some "bicycle infrastructure" help. i never ride in that part of the city and probably never will ride there much but i would like to help cyclists in that area of the city get their concerns heard by the city, alderman, and planners. one single letter to an alderman will not have much effect - but what if we...
- all, as individuals, sent a letter to the alderman in the ward
- provide the alderman with some stats to support our concerns
- organized a ride through that section a couple times
- we could focus on other areas/issues and "shake the cage" of a few different alderman
so, for this weekly group ride to work i think ALL OF US that are interested need to work hard at making it happen. the ride shouldn't always be about advocacy, but advocacy is at its heart. also really important is that the ride has to be fun too! after all, isn't that why we all started riding bikes in the first place?
the optimist in me thinks this ride could turn into something really cool - however - the pessimist in me also thinks that our individuality could be what dooms it.
Anyone in?
Submitted by PedalFaster on
Thanks Critninja for your continued efforts and positive attitude.
I am in agreement and I hope that all the members of Bike Calgary out there might be able to find time to get in on this. Please start with your comments. Do you want to see a ride like this? Wish you could organize one for a particularly difficult stretch of your own commute? Maybe as many of us as could make it can come out in a support ride for you on a certain day? Kind of like a bike gang I guess :) but with a different message.
Turns out critninja already
Submitted by vladster on
Turns out critninja already experienced what these kinds of rides can be like and wrote about it on his blog:
http://critninja.blogspot.com/2009/05/tribe-of-bike-is-everywhere-i-ventured.html
For me the largest open question remains that of routes. I don't know Calgary well enough to plan anything nice myself. If you know a route, suggest it, let's go scouting this weekend/next week, and then we can actually start the ride the week after that (I'm thinking Tuesdays would be best, since Wed/Thurs already has bike polo scheduled).