Today was another Kidical Mass ride and what a success it was! The joy on the riders’ faces and nearly all spectators’, except a couple of momentarily delayed drivers, was glowing! At today’s ride, we had a turnout of 50! All of our last 7 rides before this have been superb.
Considering it was the last Sunday before the spooky day, it was a Halloween special of Kidical Mass. If anyone so wanted, they could dress up or decorate their bikes and some Halloween themed tunes played out too. Some great efforts!
This group ride is an opportunity to celebrate cycling. It is a change for families to get out together in a safe space to enjoy our city. Often riding alone can feel so daunting. A fully comprehensive safe series of safe routes does not yet exist so sharing the lane with a few incompetent drivers is a necessity. Going out alone sharing the lane can therefore feel daunting. I joked in my opening speech that often every day feels like Halloween on the roads – scary stuff. Through a series of changes at every level of society, people can safely, easily and directly get from A to B. Kidical Mass has a motto of ‘space for the next generation’ and ‘kids are traffic too’. The ride is a reminder that the allocation of space and priorities we place needs to change.
Here are some photos and videos. Photo credit goes to Seb and Greg. Thank you!
As we started to gather:
Dracula Dr Bike! Ian from Nottingham Bikeworks.
This should not be a few times a year event. This should be commonplace. It is time for a rant. To me, Kidical Mass Nottingham is about enabling and encouraging people to cycle. It sends messages to all different levels of society – change is needed. To go out cycling as an individual, with a children on the bike or in a trailer, or as a lone family, can feel so off putting. As well as needing more infrastructure, we need a fundamental shift in society. It should be the norm to cycle the few miles from A to B. Right now, getting in one’s car warrants no condemnation, but the idea of cycling gets some stern looks from some. How backward thinking is it that getting into a over two tonne potentially killing machine for this tiny journey? For some, its ‘normalness’ makes it feel like an extension of the limb so any perceived hindrance, warrants, in their mind, aggression in the form of perhaps honking or close passing or other carelessness or danger. The norm is for young and old to cycle in the Netherlands, not that far away. It needs to become the norm here. The benefits to cycling on physical and mental health is enormous. The car encourages sedentary living. By the outlet of aggression by some, it puts those who did cycle, off, and the loop forever continues. One less people cycling is one more driving. More congestion, more pollution, more space taken up. There is not one answer to solve this. Building more cycle lanes can help but with space, money and time so limited, it is only part of the solution. Another big part is the police. For the last 14 odd years, the roads have felt like the wild west. Everytime I see a car with illegally tinted windows, completely dirt covered number plates, illegally parked cars, driving into bike boxes or careless or dangerous driving, I think the police have failed. As well as really upping their road policing, it should be the case that the police really promote their dashcam portal. If it became the case that it was common knowledge that anyone anywhere could report you, there would not be as many bad drivers left on the road. The stick is more effective than the carrot.
That was my little rant over. The beauty of today’s ride, fired me to write off the above. Change is needed now!
Thanks for reading,
Samuel
