On Festivals and Friends
When we talk about why we do Kidical Mass, it always comes back to three C’s
- Campaigning (for better infrastructure);
- Confidence (creating a safe place for kids to practice road skills); and
- Community (building one).
And, my goodness, September’s ride was strong on that last point.
To start with, it was a collaboration between two Kidical Mass organising groups. Our good friends and neighbours in Wokingham started in Woodley and followed the planned Woodley to Palmer Park cycle route, where they seamlessly flowed into the start of our Reading ride.
To finish with, our destination was the Reading Cycling Festival – we swung over Christchurch bridge to arrive at the festival as a 65 strong group – I’m informed we were a very impressive and encouraging sight!
In the middle, our wonderful marshals kept us all safe, pedestrians pointed and took pictures, and drivers were generally very well behaved – we got lots of waves and smiles! And the kids, of course, were all brilliant.
At the festival Kidical Mass shared a stand with WATCH Wokingham (if anyone was wondering what Adrian had in his trailer on the ride, it was everything needed for the stall!). We also met in person some of the lovely people behind other local cycling groups – watch this space for some exciting collaborations regarding post ride activities on future rides!
We were grateful to Woodley Councillor Carol Jewel for finding the ride and volunteering to help as a marshal. All are welcome at our rides – but it’s especially wonderful seeing our elected representatives take our issues seriously.
If you want to help us further our aims, any of the following would help:
- Write to your local councillor and invite them to join us on a ride.
- Let us know of any community notice boards where we can pop a leaflet up.
- Come and join us! Rides will be running on the second Saturday of the month in Reading or Wokingham through until at least January. If you are coming without kids and happy to consider marshalling, please contact us (on Twitter, Facebook, e-mail) so we can send you the details of what is involved.