Community Ride Tonight!
I want to encourage everyone to come out for the Community Bike Ride tonight! I anticipate that the feeling of the ride is going to be a big improvement from last week.
I think Erik summed up the meeting with Captain Tarrant and Councilperson Jose Ibarra pretty well in his post below. My one addition is that I did feel as though we came to an agreement regarding the intersections. This was that the city would try to allocate the money to support two policemen on motorcycle to block intersections for the ride. These policemen on motorcycle would not be riding with the cyclists at any point. Instead, the route of the ride will be established beforehand, emailed to Chief Tarrant, and the police on motorcycle will know which intersections to move to ahead of time so that it will not be necessary for them to follow along with the cyclists.
Something that the cyclists have been asked to do is to “self-police” the ride. The purpose of this is to show the police that their presence is not necessary so that the ride can be police-free by next Tuesday (with the exception of two motorcycle police at the major intersections). Anyone who is interested in helping out with this can meet us at 7:45pm at Time Market to volunteer as a marshal for the ride. This means you will be designated with some reflective tape and will be responsible for looking out for the riders around you, making sure that they are riding safely, staying in one lane, staying to the right of center, etc.
Otherwise, we’ll see you at 8pm at the flagpole just east of University and Park!
P.S. I would like to say thank you again to Jose Ibarra and his office for facilitating the meeting and for their efforts to create a reasonable solution that will allow our bike ride to continue! It is truly appreciated!
-elizabeth