We came, we rode, we smiled (and waved). August’s Ridecivil was a smash success – we had about 30 riders, news coverage by the major outlets, a ton of fun, and no traffic conflicts.
We also learned a ton about how to conduct a large ride like this. Before we left the park I asked the riders to take responsibility for their own riding, for keeping the group as a whole together, and to agree to a few basic principals and goals. I have to admit, my little speech didn’t instantly convert the crew into a synchronized cycling team, but we kept it together across many red lights, merges and turns. Big thanks to all the riders for this, especially the leads and sweeps.
I was really pleased with the good vibes the whole group was giving off too, lots of smiling and waving, shout outs from the street, we got a couple name checks from pedestrians and the messenger crowd. We even ran into (OK, were over taken by) a herd of about a hundred scooterists on their way to a bar, and managed to share the road and a few laughs as they scooted past.
I’ll be posting a few more details over on ridecivil.org when we get the blog up. Photos are in the Bikehugger urban bikes pool.
Follow us on Twitter
Fan us on Facebook
Suffer Faces on Tumblr
Read us on Android and iOS with the Currents app
Subscribe on Kindle 
Congratulations on a civilized riding event! A group of riders following traffic laws to peacefully coexist with motorists on the street seems a lot more constructive to our cause. I do like what CM originally stood for, but I think it’s veering away more and more from that original intent.
How can I set up something like this in Knoxville Tennessee. The Mayor here is a fitness nut and may not have a problem with it. Knoxville has may Greenway and they are expanding like crazy. I think it would be great to start something like ridecivil here. Letting the public know that cyclist are human too and just want to enjoy the road too.
To set something up like this, just start advertising and show up. Talk to your local bike clubs and see if you can get any support from them, but mostly just be consistent about it. At first you might only get a few people, but cycling in the city is much better even with a group of 4 than solo.
Pick a nice, common, accessible starting point. Maybe look at where your Critical Mass starts and pick the same starting point. Use city streets, but ones that have slower traffic.
We’d love to see this get started in other cities and to hear how it goes. Until the ridecivil blog goes up, feel free to visit the seattlelikesbikes.org forum and chat more about ideas for setting up RideCivil in your town.
Just ran in to Michael Snyder at the grocery store and he mentioned he posted a video of the mopeds overtaking our group.
Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_yHJM4S-As
Thanks again for organizing this, Dave. It was lots of fun!
Hey Mr. Cornbread, drop me a line at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and I’ll share all the secrets I know to setting up your own.
In the mean time, the rest of you come take a gander at our new site: ridecivil.com. Not quite as nice as bikehugger yet, but we’re getting there!