Tuesday Night Bike Ride for families? Is there one? Why not?
A friend of mine just called me to ask if there are any easy, safe, fun bike rides he can do with his young daughter. He was wondering if the TNBR might be a good option, but apparently he went to my blog and read the recent posts about it and thought he should call first before heading over there.
I had to tell him that generally speaking, probably no. I do remember a time when people would bring their young kids on the TNBR, but that was back when the routes were a little more carefully chosen and the ride started earlier. Most parents would probably prefer not to guide their nine-year-old down Sixth Street at 9:30 PM on a bicycle.
Why isn’t there a ride in Tucson that would accommodate my friend and his daughter? It seems like there should be one. Right now the best I can think of is the annual Ciclovia and the BICAS bike-in movie rides.
–Erik Ryberg
August 25th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
What are you doing on Tuesday night? I’ll tell you what I’m not doing… going to the TNBR. How about a family-friendly, civil bike ride this coming Tuesday night? We’ll meet at seven (or eight) and start with a quick discussion about a route that suits the abilities, needs and wants of the attendees and get going. What do you say?
August 25th, 2010 at 11:50 pm
BICAS isn’t doing bike in movies anymore, as far as I’ve heard. Someone stole the projector, I was told! Bike in movie, R.I.P.! I, and a few other people, put a lot of time and sweat into painting that screen, let’s hope there will be more movies in the future. Maybe a fundraiser should be held for a new projector (and a place to lock it up!).
August 26th, 2010 at 8:31 am
Check out Kidical Mass: http://www.kidicalmass.org/
August 28th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
My neighbor Mike S. started a family ride about a year ago with his two daughters (ages 8/11), on Saturday mornings. Maybe he was ahead of his time. Ready Mike?
August 29th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Erik,
What a great blog! I stumbled on your blog a couple hours ago and have been non-stop reading since then.
I have been increasing my bike usage and decreasing my car usage over the past 15ish months and plan to switch to about 90% biking in the next week or so (when I move) for a number of reasons. I feel much more educated about doing so in Tucson now than I did a couple hours ago. Keep up the good work.
September 8th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
There was a time that the TNBR was for all that came on two wheels, or one wheel(Steven), or others with training wheels, thats what made the ride so diffrent. You could always tell when the ride was planned out. Looking back at it now we didn’t talk about how we planned or research rides, we should have groomed the leaders that took up slack in our absence. And looking back at it, its something I personaly wished we should have done. I would think it would be good to get back to the roots of the ride, start the ride again at 7:30pm, talk to people about lights, and how to be safe. It would make the bike community that much stronger again, it can be called TNBR_Version2.0. I wish that I was there to help with the rebirth of the ride, but it will have to be passed on to the new riders of the TNBR.