I joined the Tuesday Community Bike Ride the night before last.
Evidently, the police may have been mistaken in producing such force and thought the community ride was a Critical Mass ride (which took place last Friday with about 100 riders).
Organizers of the community ride want people to know: They are not Critical Mass, but they have a huge following that started from about five guys doing night rides in July; it’s now up to 300 men and women. To them, it’s about the ride, the community they’ve developed and the freedom to explore the city together.
I interviewed someone before the ride who told me he thinks almost everything could be solved by getting on a bike. As I peddled along, I thought of us as pueblo fireflys taking over the neighborhoods. I thought of his words, and that perhaps he is right. It’s simple, but I think the small band of bike brothers who started the community ride could be the best-kept secret anarchists in the city (even if they do not want to be associated with Critical Mass).
Last night, after the guys worked on negotiations with the police, the TPD representation was far less– about 8-10 bike cops, and only four motorcycle cops, who decided to focus on stopping traffic at intersections.
The bike cops mostly stayed at the end, so I had some company. They chatted with riders, and said they felt they were needed to protect riders from the cars. An organizer told them the 300 people the week before was the norm, and they had taken care of each other just fine.
There were 232 people last night. If you didn’t show up last night because of the police the week before, organizers want you to know: Come back. Cops and bikers are talking.
And if you haven’t done the ride, join me. I’m going to do this again. People are nice. Some bring good tunes from players tied on their bikes or backpacks. Others have good stories. And you’ll love how it feels to be a firefly.
The group meets at 8 p.m. at the flag pole past the UA Main Gate near Old Main every Tuesday night. I heard they even take suggestions for routes.
This article appears in Nov 1-7, 2007.
Aha!
Light bulb now shining brightly in my brain. A few weeks ago when it was dark, I was driving east on 5th Street and was stopped along with a long line of cars ahead of me and a few policemen on motorcycles in the intersection. After awhile there were lots and lots of bikes wheeling through the intersection (no signal). People of all ages but mostly thin 20-something men.
I couldn’t figure out what it was but now that you describe so, it must’ve been the community bike ride.
Tucson never ceases to amaze me regarding the numerous opps of building community.
i rode a bike around for over 10 years, so i understand the need. but, most bicyclists are soooo annoying!
the bicyclists i saw that night broke the law left and right. as i sat at a light i watched the one with the viking helmet that i saw on the news later that night just go thru the red light in a pack like so many do. also, as i was going south under the stone ave underpass a girl in this mass of bikes suddenly merged from the crosswalk and subsequent bike lane to go under the underpass on her bike. she has every right to ride her bike under there, but not without warning from the crosswalk. it is tight down there and i almost hit her!
bicyclists: don’t break the law so much when you ride your bikes. you want all this equality, yet act selfish at the same time. quit using your bike like some motorcyclists do: to get around traffic, merge zones etc. also, watch out when you all get together and talk about how persecuted you are – you may get some flack for just being a bicyclist, but don’t feel like your such victims all the time that you become blind to your own foibles when it come to your bike-riding.
anon
Not that long ago I saw paramedics give a girl hit by a car a hard time for breaking some improperly applied rule.
You DRIVERS worry about point. We if we are lucky and unlightened feel fear at times but ride nonetheless we know it’s best, safest, and but for false propiganda like that from anon at 204PM would be able to so bitch about rare cars so conspicous as to be a proper minority anywhere congestion is possible.
The purpose of traffic signals is to help enhance everyones perception. The green light does not mean go. The red light does not mean come hither if you wish to be bumped. The yellow light advises that some thinks this is the case- but only that, only that you best not let a gap open up or some throttle happy accelerant will fail to continue to yield to the efficiency of allowing the bodies already in motion to clear the intersection even if there slower speed means they get to keep going on red from much further away then cars properly are punished for.
It is about power sure. It is nonviolence though. Not economic hastle that deters the baked on painted gallopy sponsors and there kings. So anon is tempted. Sure he is. Too often we are slain. Too few of us see this as what it is. The murderer being outed. Given an able bodied relatively lucky sort to sacrifice. So that maybe someday the real victims- the millions suffering from asthma, cancer, WAR, not mere tokens hit on the road itself, can someday be cared for.
Biking is safe. We are not at war. The police when called up are seeing action that surpasses the few a year ground down sure, but the problem here is clear. Good roads are paved with insane monstrousities. Signals are programmed to allow them to pass twice or more per day across town mean the rest of us must join or stop and go in every outing starign at you with your hands on a wheel you barely even turn when Uing at us not just the way back since you need a block more then any dime to rotate.
It’s that simple. We don’t need more cars as the physicist testified during the RTA inquisition. It’s the cars that need to be parked much more not less. Not at public expense either. Not as though registereing them or worse moving them excuses there exposure to children walking to school. Or a joint in the ‘glove’ box is like anything other then a traffic ticket almost paid in Dahmers here there and everywhere’s pocket. It’s thinking sitting in a retarded albeit self moving box lessens the importance of home without making evil it’s first mission. Go home. Get out of it. Stop being the problem and the solution is accomplished.
That’s ENlightened not UN as to ‘bike’ is to swim well to shore and to drive is to play music on the deck of the Titanic with water up to ones ears and above them now. In the movie of course there was a car that fucking around in almost cost an otherwise artistic chap his life and the not to naked to have better swam loves.
a message perhaps. one neglected if you just focus in upon her nipples. There is beauty in the two wheels themselves. And salvation. Not fourwheeledTURDS for the ever increasing DUMBED NUMB.
It’s the damn lack of good bike lanes — have fun out on Speedway — and the damn heat — have fun sweating in 110 weather — that needs to be fixed. Bicycling for fun is easy; bicycle commuting every day is a total pain and not safe enough.
IPH the roads are for people- not cars. It is never hot on a bike. Unless you are stuck waiting for cars to pass staring at you wasting more energy in a minute cooling themselves in solar ovens then you use in a thousand miles across months to arrive before them.
Karl… cars are driven by people. Explain.
I don’t bike enough. That said…the car drivers in this town are nuts. I never feel like I’m going fast enough. Someone is always on my ass. I often travel down Mountain Avenue, and every day someone passes illegally, the four-stop at Mountain and Glenn is a great place for someone with anger management issues to practice new skills, and I see bikes and people in wheels chairs go through near misses every week. It’s not the cyclists, but the motorists. What’s up with the car drivers?