Yesterday Kidical Mass Nottingham returned!
Eager to bring this back this year after a successful 5 rides in 2023, I found out about the Safe Streets Now group. They were organising a campaigning day of action so a series of Kidical Mass rides were set to take place around the country on one particular day. Saturday 20th April 2024 was set!
Often if I pick an idea and invest a lot of time and energy into trying to make it a success. As well as this trait, I have generally for many years been trying to encourage and enable cycling. The two combined added to a great passion to make this big. Last year, as each ride took place, the momentum grew and towards the end of the year we hit just shy of 70.
I had arranged for Dr Bike to be at the beginning. The ride was due to leave at 11am, so with Dr Bike scheduled for the hour before, I aimed for 10am. I must admit I misjudged it a bit and it was quarter past I arrived. By this time a few people were milling about and a bike was in the stand, I wondered how many would show.
Although we have the rides published on the Kidical Mass Nottingham Facebook group, numbers listed as attending are not accurate.
I gave out a few of Kidical Mass Nottingham stickers I had printed. Numbers stayed low for a while and then a few people appeared. I had hope. I popped to the loo which was quite a walk away over at 1881 Cafe and by the time I returned, numbers had swelled. As well as loads of families, there were two councillors and even two community police. They were given stickers of course.
A quick head count by Seb confirmed numbers had hit 70! Wonderful turnout. Worry that it had lost momentum need not have been there.
It ticked over to just past 11am and after waiting for any latecomers, I began the welcoming speech. If you so wanted to watch it, here’s it is:
We gave a shout out for Safe Streets Now!
And then we were off!
Beautiful start to the ride.
After the ride, there was the feeling of a real buzz. So many people came up to me to say thank you. I have also had others feedback snippets like passing comments. The impact the ride had was fabulous. There was also talk at the end by some about how can we make it bigger! I spoke with a few parents who said they are going to let their school network know about the next one.
It was a delight to see many children having a wonderful time. Starting off riding with their parents, a few of them moved forward to be behind the speaker singing along to the music and riding their bikes.
The sight of so many families out was just brilliant but it is a reminder that this should not be neccessitated by a group ride but should be commonplace. This being organised on the Safe Streets Now day was a timely reminded that the roads need to be foccused on people being able to safely, directly and freely get from A to B rather than the space dedicated to motor-vehicles moving to their destination as quickly as possible to the hindrance of everyone else. If you are reading this, you most probably know all of these hindrances and concerns so I won’t go into the damage to the roads, potholes they cause, noise pollution, exhaust pollution, delay to pedestrians and cyclists and that drivers cause 5 deaths per day and thousands of serious injuries!
If anyone is reading this and is thinking about setting up a ride for their town or city and wants some advice, drop me a tweet / X.
A wonderful ride! As I treat, Seb, Ben, Greg, Simon and I went for a some food at 1881 cafe afterwards.
Below is a recent Twitter / X thread:
Speak soon,
Samuel x
