SRTS Kidical Mass

Looking spiffy at the Capitol!

I finally got to spend some real time at the 4th annual Safe Routes To School conference today. I was a bit nervous about leading the Kidical Mass ride with real people in the industry. I always feel like such an impostor. I just ride a bike, I don't make policy changes or anything important. However, finally meeting Shane MacRhodes of Eugene Kidical Mass, helped put me at ease. Having an expert help organize the ride was fantastic. He even brought unique spokecards for everyone! 

I had already ridden my planned route multiple times in the last couple of days and made a few changes here and there. There was heavier traffic than I would normally plan for a Kidical Mass ride but because the conference is at the Sheraton Grand, we didn't have much choice other than Downtown Sacramento. We already had about 30 people signed up for the ride so I knew that we'd be big enough to have a presence on the larger roads which were mostly multi-lane one-way. The areas that didn't have bike lanes still had sharrows and bicycles were pretty common vehicles on these routes. Our riders were almost all adults and the few kids were all riding on their big buddy's bike (in various forms). 

Our route was 13th st. to T st. (which is usually lovely but it was garbage day...), 10th street led us by the Capitol--where the bike lane disappears and is replaced by sharrows. J street was the biggest and busiest road we were on and the bike lane is pretty useless but it was just for a couple of blocks and we were fine. 

The Kidical mass.

Homemade bakfiets!

We ended up with about 30 riders total, including some locals and a few kidicals. We had a great variety of cargo bikes including my Bullitt, Shane's longtail Bike Friday, Mina's Madsen, Jen's Yuba, a homemade bakfiets, a demo Yuba Lux with Monkey Bars, a couple Boda Bodas, and Grandpa Greg with his grandson on the trail-a-bike (4th grandkid to pedal that ride!). There were also a few "regular" Bike Fridays, a Brompton, and a handful of Practical Cycles's rental fleet that had been donated to the conference this week. 

The incredible longtail Bike Friday of Shane's!

The elusive Monkey Bars.

After a quick informative intro and ride briefing from Shane, we pulled out into traffic. We followed all traffic laws with me as leader and Shane as sweeper. Every so often, I'd hear on the walkie-talkie "hold up ahead" from Shane and we'd pull over where it was safe to allow the rest of the group to catch up. No one gets left behind on a Kidical Mass ride!

It was an easy but thorough 3 miles around downtown. We made one longer stop at the Capitol for a quick photo op and fortune cookie (thanks, Elena!) snack. As we got back to the hotel, some of the riders broke off to the Farmer's Market a few blocks away. The rest of us closed the ride with a visit to POPcycle (I had garden mint chip--amazing! Thanks, dad!). Rachel had pedaled the POPcycle down to peddle her homemade gourmet ice cream pops. Yummy! It was the best way to close out a fun but warm afternoon ride. 

Classy riders!

Some Kidicals!

Yummy yum yum!

After the ride, I sat in on one of the breakout sessions--Fleets and Geeks--to learn about bike education and bike fleet options. It really helped me get more excited about the breakout session that I get to be a part of tomorrow morning--Family Bicycling: Empowering Tomorrow's Leaders. I'm having a great time absorbing all the expertise from these folks who are very involved in all the planning and implementing of these great programs to get safer streets for all. I am so inspired to bring some of these wonderful ideas into our future Kidical Mass rides. 

These guys love safe routes and POPcycles!