Tuesday Night Bike Ride, two years later
I was snooping around in my old posts and discovered it was just over two years ago that I first started riding in and posting about the Tuesday Night Bike Ride. (Actually my friend Elizabeth made the first post about it on this blog.)
We were so excited back then to see 100 cyclists show up every week!
It’s bigger now.
I was talking to a friend about how whenever new students show up in August the TNBR suddenly becomes a lot more critical-massy.
New people arrive who want to run the lights and annoy drivers and assert their right to the road. Somewhere along the line back in 2007 the TNBR settled into an equilibrium with the police, a kind of “don’t look, don’t tell, don’t enforce, but don’t push it” detente whereby we take only one lane, mostly always stop at the stop lights, and kind of try to not be too obnoxious at the stop signs, and they don’t hound us in their police cruisers, on their motorcycles, and with paddy wagons in tow.
After some rather bad behavior this last August, I think the ride is settling down again. I hope it returns soon to the joy ride it once was — a fun time on your bike through town, without fear of being run over by an angry motorist or arrested by an angry cop.
Like my friend Arlo once said before a community bike ride: “There’s nothing wrong with a critical mass ride, this just isn’t one.” So all you TNBR veterans, let’s start showing up again and make the ride what it was always meant to be — fun!
See you tomorrow!
–Erik Ryberg
September 21st, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I don’t ride groups who break the laws. Doesn’t help me out at all.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:19 am
I break the laws all by myself.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:43 am
Breaking the law makes me feel unbearably guilty; doing it in a group of several hundred makes me understand why people hate cyclists. I try again every few months but it’s by and large just a clusterfuck of law breaking. No thanks!
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:16 am
Don’t like the ride….don’t do it. Better yet, start your own law abiding group ride.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:21 am
That’s the thing localmusicfan, you can’t control other people.
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I have often thought we should have a TNBR for grownups. We could meet at the same place and the same time, but when the TNBR takes off, we go the other direction. Not in protest, in solidarity. But at a different angle. Our ride would be small, of course, and well-behaved, and generally an embarrassment to those fast, fashionable youngsters on the real TNBR, but they would tolerate us because we are old and pathetic and riding bicycles anyway.
EBR
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Erik, if you’re serious you can count me in! Not this week though, previously engaged.
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Erik- I have a feeling that it wouldn’t be all geriatrics on your half of the ride. TNBR has always had a lot of young people involved, but as you’ve said before a lot of the original riders don’t go anymore. I think it’s time to initiate a different ride altogether except this time with certain standards to uphold. It might be surprising how many familiar faces start showing up again.
Seems to me like it might work better and cause less confusion to try a ride such as this one on a different night. A new ride needs an identity of its own. I would know…I live here.
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Somehow I don’t think carheads really make distinctions between “law-abiding” group rides and “mad max rebel” group rides. It’s more like “Oh my god, someone call the police, it can’t be legal for that many bikes to ride on the road,” regardless of how many lanes you occupy or whether or not the riders have lights. I agree that corking intersections and riding through stop lights probably makes things worse, but I really don’t think that we’ll show them by forming a completely separate civil ride. An asshole who is going to throw his mountain dew at you probably doesn’t follow you around to see if you blow through stop signs first and then throw stuff at you.
But I guess I’m just a pessimist when it comes to changing other people’s opinions. However, if someone sees a crapload of bikes and thinks “hey, that looks like fun.” then that may be just as good.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:03 pm
It has very little to do with preception and more to do with integrity. I was once on a ride where 15 cyclists floored it down a MUP at 15 mph an hour. I could find nothing wrong with that, but at the same time as a pedestrian I don’t think I would like it. I make my intentions clear or I leave the group and do my own thing. I am not wearing an ANSI II vest to be a clown.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Ohh happy World Car free Day everyone!
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Mickey I think the difference is whether or not the ride attracts the attention of the police. I want to have a good time, not unduly piss anybody off, and not get in a confrontation with the police. Corking intersections and the rest will draw their attention for sure. Just making a few tiny concessions seems to keep them away. I think it’s a fair trade.
EBR
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:10 pm
“Just making a few tiny concessions
seems to keep them away. I think it’s
a fair trade.”
Amen, brother!
September 30th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Where does the ride start? I would love to go.Also when is the next ride?