Biking locally
Shoot! I missed Wilmington’s Critical Mass again. It was last Friday, and happens on the last Friday of every month, though according to a post on local bike site sirbikesalot.com, it may be losing some of its steam.
WWAY has a piece on it with some predictably incendiary comments trailing: “…don’t I have the right to pull out in front of you, or force you into a parked car when I make a right turn?”, &cetera. There’s a great tension there — between civility and subterfuge, awareness and aggression. Hoping to go next time and find out about it, though not without some qualms.
As a less aggressive, more responsible and perhaps more popular alternative to Critical Mass, one of the Sir Bikes-a-lot knights is suggesting a Wilmington Ciclovia(Time for our own Ciclovia), an event that originated in Colombia, apparently, in which the city closes a stretch of city roads and encourages people to come walk and bike, to get communal by getting car-free and outdoors together. It sounds great. I’ve signed the Wilmington Ciclovia petition.
There’s also the Hot 100, a 100 mile ride up around Moore’s Creek whose posters are up now at the Two Wheeler Dealer, which is coming up on August 31st. I may have to do the wimpy 50-miler version instead, but I’m goin’.
A fellow Grove Projecter and I are going to ride tomorrow evening in the CFC’s Flaming Amy’s Burrito Ride, a mellow, popular ride from Flaming Amy’s across town and around Greenfield Lake once or twice, then back. My son and I go every now and again — he rides behind in a little bike trailer.
Ridership in Wilmington’s CMs has fluctuated since the first ride in 1999. The rides come and go, take breaks for months and then just mysteriously appear again. If anything, ridership in the current incarnation of CM is increasing every month. Many of the people who post on sirbikesalot don’t even ride in the CMs, so take their comments with a grain of salt. The great thing about Critical Mass is that everyone has a claim to it, it happens with consensus and without leadership…
Thanks, Trace. Looking forward to it.
I was riding with one of the Knights, who’s also in the CFC, and he was completely stoked about the CM, which surprised me given some of the things I read on a sirbikesalot.com forum in which even tacit endorsement of Critical Mass on the part of the Cape Fear Cyclists was seeming like a Bad Thing.
[…] I was taken in too. The BYOH folks have a Really, Really Free Market (rhymes with flea market) at Greenfield Lake near the tennis courts on the last Sunday of every month — so mark your calendars for August 31st. I’m going. There and elsewhere, local anarchists share expertise on bike repair (or just repair your bike for you), serve free food, promote Thoreau-vian self-reliance and in general exemplify the center-less, be your own hero way. BYOHers are also, of course, participants in the local Critical Mass. […]
Been all around this state. This is one of the least bike-friendly cities I’ve ever seen. Everybody encourages us to walk or bike to be green, etc., then these local citizen jerks try to run you over. Few, very few bike lanes, few shoulders on roadsides, sidewalks lacking on every main artery in this town.
Is Wilmington retarded? Are you all inbred or something here? I hate this town. Drivers are nasty here. Two cyclists killed in about a month recently.
Drivers are nasty sometimes. Guy flipped me off yesterday as he sped by; I’ve been yelled at I don’t know how many times for taking up some tiny slice of road where the side is all ripped up and bike-lane-less.
I get pissed too, Marty — But I don’t then act like a name-calling, victimized ten-year-old. Or wait….maybe you are ten years old. Sorry about that. Inbred? Retarded? The whole town? “You all”? How about working on these problems rather than trolling? Or if you’re just visiting and feel like throwing around a few loose insults about a town you’re not even invested in, don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out. (Again: If you’re ten years old, I’m sorry. Maybe you can ask your mom to take you to a different middle school next year.)
I also sometimes get Wilmingtonians beeping in salute, riding their bikes alongside, asking me questions when I grocery shop with a trailer, or else just yelling out, Go Bikes! I yell it sometimes too.