Group Ride protocols
Hi all,
Does anyone have any group ride protocols that they use for their rides? Ex, methods for controlling intersections, etc? We're wanting to collaborate with another bike org on rides, and it's best if we have similar protocols on this, and I wanted to collect some examples to bring to the team
Thank you!!
Mary-Catherine
Mary-Catherine Graziano
Senior Education and Safety Manager
Pronouns: she / her / hers
Local Motion Inc.
1 Steele Street # 103, Burlington, VT 05401
www.localmotion.org
Vermont Walk Bike Advocates Forum https://groups.google.com/a/localmotion.org/g/walkbikevt
Office: (802) 861-2700 ext 106
https://www.facebook.com/localmotionvt https://www.instagram.com/localmotionvermont/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/local-motion-vt https://www.youtube.com/c/LocalMotionVT
One strategy I have used on group rides is to assign riders to spots in the pack. Everyone rides 2 abreast in the lanes. At least one strong rider at very front (leader) and very back. The front rider has to be diligent with arm signals. Train everyone on signals at start. Rear rider has to be a vocal person who’s not scared to speak up if we lose a rider, or if speed is not suitable. I direct each rider to their spot in the pack (“Simon beside me at the front, Winnie and Bob next, then X and Y, and Andres and Brandon in the rear,” for example.)
Bike Regina
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
From: Mary-Catherine Graziano via TheThinkTank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2024 12:25 PM To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Cc: Mary-Catherine Graziano marycatherine@localmotion.org Subject: [TheThinkTank] Group Ride protocols
Hi all,
Does anyone have any group ride protocols that they use for their rides? Ex, methods for controlling intersections, etc? We're wanting to collaborate with another bike org on rides, and it's best if we have similar protocols on this, and I wanted to collect some examples to bring to the team
Thank you!!
Mary-Catherine
Mary-Catherine Graziano
Senior Education and Safety Manager
Pronouns: she / her / hers
Local Motion Inc.
1 Steele Street # 103, Burlington, VT 05401
http://www.localmotion.org/ www.localmotion.org
https://groups.google.com/a/localmotion.org/g/walkbikevt Vermont Walk Bike Advocates Forum
Office: (802) 861-2700 ext 106
https://www.facebook.com/localmotionvt https://www.instagram.com/localmotionvermont/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/local-motion-vt https://www.youtube.com/c/LocalMotionVT
As you can tell from the replies, the answer depends a lot on what kind and how large of a group ride we are discussing. Most group rides that I'm aware of operate under the premise that the bicyclists are part of normal traffic and are subject to the rules of the road. The notable exceptions are permitted rides where roads or intersections are closed, or unsanctioned rides such as Critical Mass in some cities.
Controlling intersections on the former types of rides involves reminding riders to stop at lights. For Critical Mass types of rides, "corking" is usually done to allow the group to stay together.
What kind of rides are we talking about? Protocols will differ depending on whether we are talking about small morning club rides or multi-day tours of thousands of participants. Are we talking about rides on bike paths, or ones in the same traffic stream as cars? Are the riders young and fast racers, or is this a social ride mixing retirees and working folks? Let’s consider small club rides of no more than one or two dozen.
Even micro-managing small club rides is like herding cats: it is just hopeless. Instead, where I live, we self-segregate into groups with similar group ride customs.
For example, consider helmets. Most but not all riders agree that helmets are good. The local bike club mandates that all participants on official club rides must wear helmets. This lead to the rise of a weekly unofficial club ride, to accommodate helmetless riders.
All cub rides are rated according to degree of difficulty, which is a function of distance, pace, and elevation gain. In this way riders can self-segregate according to how fast they wish to ride.
Club rides are also designated as “drop” or “no drop.” If you can’t keep up with the group they either periodically wait for the slowest riders to catch up, or those that can’t keep up need to be completely self-sufficient with respect to route and repairs.
The idea of controlling intersections is almost completely foreign to me. Bicycles are considered vehicles for most purposes. Therefore, we all need to obey the rules of the road and stop (or at least roll slowly through) and wait our turn all stop signs, pretty much the way that motorists do in their gasmobiles. Only on the rare very large ride do I see intersection control, where both motorists and cyclists benefit from quickly getting hundreds of bikes through an intersection in a single shot.
Generally, my advice is to not do joint rides with another organization unless your riding customs are compatible.
Gordon Hamachi
Idaho Stop.
The "Idaho Stop" should be pushed for in every state.
Nothing would be better for bicycling.
Groups abandoning cycling as the main~ & only focus~ have harmed cycling. Cycling has been severely set back, the last few years, by very wrong ideas~ & will continue to suffer until a major mindset change occurs and a return of people independently minded who view cycling properly. The onslaught against cyclists (purportedly for & by cyclists) that has occurred in this century has failed cyclists.
A momentous chance has been squandered.
~Robert Allan Rands
On Thursday, January 18, 2024 at 06:55:02 PM EST, thethinktank-request@lists.bikecollectives.org wrote:
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: Bicycle Retail story on community shops (Sam Haraldson) 2. Group Ride protocols (Gordon Hamachi) 3. Re: Group Ride protocols (Lloyd ) 4. Re: Bicycle Retail story on community shops (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
Message: 1 Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2024 12:38:45 -0700 From: Sam Haraldson sam@bozemanbikekitchen.org Subject: [TheThinkTank] Re: Bicycle Retail story on community shops To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Cc: Bobby Kennedy Bobby@dsmstreetcollective.org Message-ID: CADu_z43kxU_yv+tDON9nRp-neuth7Z8hh3fH6C_+teeCgM05VQ@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000b1ca7e060f3d832b"
Doesn't look like the Wiki allows editing for Special Pages. Any
suggestions?
Bobby Kennedy
Howdy Bobby,
That table is automatically created by pulling information from an individual bike collectives' page in the Wiki.
Start by finding your country on the following page and then creating a new page for your collective within the proper state/province/region. Copy a template from another collective that has a nice setup so that the proper tags are in there which will then automatically populate the info to that table. https://bikecollectives.org/wiki/Community_Bicycle_Organizations
The list is created using something called "Cargo Query" (don't ask me what that means, I just logically stopped and figured this out while trying to answer your question). You can learn what the different info that is displayed on it by looking at the "shop_info" section at the bottom of this page: https://bikecollectives.org/wiki/Special:CargoTableDiagram
You're welcome to copy the text from our shop to use in setting up your own shop if you'd like: https://bikecollectives.org/wiki/Bozeman_Bike_Kitchen
Cheers, Sam
Hi Mary-Catherine,
One excellent place to learn more about protocols is to visit the table of rides, Angel started September, 2022, at our wiki: https://bikecollectives.org/wiki/Social_bike_rides
If you follow the links, some of the group rides do share their protocols, for instance:
https://www.sjbikeparty.org/how-we-ride/
https://sfbikeparty.wordpress.com/about/how-we-ride-details/
https://www.baltimorebrewclub.com/baltimorebikeparty2
Everyone, It would be awesome if more rides were represented at our wiki. If you are involved with rides, or know about some rides, please add them to the table at https://bikecollectives.org/wiki/Social_bike_rides .
-Jonathan
On 2024-01-18 13:25, Mary-Catherine Graziano via TheThinkTank wrote:
Hi all,
Does anyone have any group ride protocols that they use for their rides? Ex, methods for controlling intersections, etc? We're wanting to collaborate with another bike org on rides, and it's best if we have similar protocols on this, and I wanted to collect some examples to bring to the team
Thank you!!
Mary-Catherine
Mary-Catherine Graziano
Senior Education and Safety Manager
Pronouns: she / her / hers
Local Motion Inc.
1 Steele Street # 103, Burlington, VT 05401
www.localmotion.org [1]
Vermont Walk Bike Advocates Forum [2]
Office: (802) 861-2700 ext 106
Links:
[1] http://www.localmotion.org/ [2] https://groups.google.com/a/localmotion.org/g/walkbikevt
Thank you, everyone! This has been extremely helpful!!!
Mary-Catherine
Mary-Catherine Graziano
Senior Education and Safety Manager
Pronouns: she / her / hers
Local Motion Inc.
1 Steele Street # 103, Burlington, VT 05401
www.localmotion.org
Vermont Walk Bike Advocates Forum https://groups.google.com/a/localmotion.org/g/walkbikevt
Office: (802) 861-2700 ext 106
https://www.facebook.com/localmotionvt https://www.instagram.com/localmotionvermont/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/local-motion-vt https://www.youtube.com/c/LocalMotionVT
On Thu, Jan 25, 2024 at 1:27 AM Jonathan Rosenbaum bike@bikelover.org wrote:
Hi Mary-Catherine,
One excellent place to learn more about protocols is to visit the table of rides, Angel started September, 2022, at our wiki: https://bikecollectives.org/wiki/Social_bike_rides
If you follow the links, some of the group rides do share their protocols, for instance:
https://www.sjbikeparty.org/how-we-ride/
https://sfbikeparty.wordpress.com/about/how-we-ride-details/
https://www.baltimorebrewclub.com/baltimorebikeparty2
Everyone, It would be awesome if more rides were represented at out wiki. If you are involved with rides, or know about some rides, please add add them to the table at https://bikecollectives.org/wiki/Social_bike_rides .
-Jonathan
On 2024-01-18 13:25, Mary-Catherine Graziano via TheThinkTank wrote:
Hi all,
Does anyone have any group ride protocols that they use for their rides? Ex, methods for controlling intersections, etc? We're wanting to collaborate with another bike org on rides, and it's best if we have similar protocols on this, and I wanted to collect some examples to bring to the team
Thank you!!
Mary-Catherine
Mary-Catherine Graziano
Senior Education and Safety Manager
Pronouns: she / her / hers
Local Motion Inc.
1 Steele Street # 103, Burlington, VT 05401
www.localmotion.org
Vermont Walk Bike Advocates Forum https://groups.google.com/a/localmotion.org/g/walkbikevt
Office: (802) 861-2700 ext 106
participants (6)
-
Gordon Hamachi -
info＠bikeregina.org -
Jonathan Rosenbaum -
Lloyd -
Mary-Catherine Graziano -
Robert Rands