Bikey Things Happening and Dates to Save

Just a quick post to let you know about some upcoming events and a few things going on during these last days of winter. We're looking forward to the sunnier days of Spring!

March 1 South Sound Sustainability Expo
We will have a booth at this free event at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center. Stop by to learn more about Kidical Mass and ask us about riding bikes in Tacoma.

This public event is intended to provide residents and business owners in the greater Tacoma metropolitan area a place to discover services, products, companies, and agencies in our region that address sustainability needs in our community.

If you're driving to the event, I suggest parking at the Tacoma Dome Parking Garage and taking the LINK lightrail directly to the convention center. Kids love to ride the LINK!

5th Grade Bike Poster Contest
Have your 5th grader enter this Washington Bikes poster contest for a chance at prizes, fame, and a chance to go to the national competition.

The contest asks 5th grade students to create a poster around the famous John F. Kennedy quote, “Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.”

Entries are due March 7. Maybe your student's whole school would like to participate? It looks like there were no entries from Tacoma last year. You can put us on the map!

April 12 - Junior Daffodil Parade
Kidical Mass Tacoma will be riding in this non-motorized parade in the Proctor District. More details will be posted here on the blog soon, but plan on meeting us the morning of the parade at Mason Middle School to decorate bikes while we wait for the parade to start. The parade moves at a walking pace, so this is a great opportunity for younger kids on push bikes and training wheels. The theme for the 2014 parade is Ready, Set, Grow!

May 3 Tacoma Bike Swap and Kid Bike Rodeo
Bike Month kicks off with a huge bike swap event at the University of Puget Sound Field House. Kidical Mass Tacoma will be there to host a bike rodeo for kids who want to test their riding skills on our obstacle course.

May 7 National Bike to School Day
Now is a great time to talk with your PTA and start organizing a Bike To School event at your school. There were Walk To School Day events hosted at several Tacoma elementary schools last fall and the turn-outs were eye-opening. There is tons of information at www.walkbiketoschool.org. Let us know in the comments if you're planning an event at your school.

May 17 Kidical Mass Tacoma in the Hilltop
Our first official ride of the season. We'll ride from Peoples Park to Zina's Place at McCarver Elementary and back to Peoples Park. There's a playground stop in the middle and a free snack at the end. We're working on a few additional surprises, too.

New #Bike253 Calendar on Exit133.com
As part of a grassroots effort to promote bike riding in Tacoma, the folks at local blog Exit133.com have created a special events page on their site where you can post upcoming bike ride and activities. Posting is free. Our events will be listed there as well. Check it out!

http://www.exit133.com/bike253/

Kicking Off 2014: The Year of the Horse

Welcome to the new Kidical Mass Tacoma site!

After six fun events in 2013, it's time to get organized for another fun year of riding bikes with kids in Tacoma. We will post details on our upcoming ride calendar here soon, but you can also get updates through our new Facebook page (facebook.com/Kidical Mass Tacoma) and Twitter handle (@TacomaKidical). Follow us!

As a final send-off to 2013, Kidical Mass was invited to First Night Tacoma, a New Year's Eve arts and music celebration downtown. We rode as part of the World's Shortest Parade that launched the evening's festivities. I (Matt, ride leader dad guy) had never been to First Night and was excited to check it out. Since it was dark, my daughter and I decorated our bikes with lots of lights. This is actually a great way to stay visible on any night ride year-round!

Cargobike in tow-bike mode

The weather was damp and cold, so both paraders and spectators waited until the last moment to arrive at the start line near the Old Elk's Lodge. One man with a bull-horn was all it took to get this motley crew in formation. It was like being part of a flash mob!

Only a few kids rode with us in the parade, but many others lined the 1 block route to watch. A towering, illuminated Trojan Horse quadracycle led off the group of pyrotechnic mini-floats, street performers, bikes, unicycles, a drumline and even a Back To the Future pedal-car made by Tacoma's FabLab.

It was a blast!

The parade ended in front of a large outdoor music stage on Broadway where the crowd of revelers slowly dispersed towards the many venues hosting performances and activities of all kinds, both indoors and outside. (Post Defiance has a great article on what you missed!)

On my way back up Broadway, I found Josh setting up The Really Big Table Project in front of the Pantages. It's a 24' long portable table with its own custom bike trailer, which he towed in the parade. The table is available to rent for community events and is meant to help spark conversation and bring people together.

It turned out to be a great night to ride bikes and enjoy the outdoor festivities. We're looking forward to participating in First Night Tacoma again in 2014!

Kidical Mass Invites You to First Night

Kidical Mass Tacoma invites you to ride along in the World's Shortest Parade on December 31st! The parade is part of First Night, Downtown Tacoma's New Year's celebration, and kicks-off a full evening of activities and musical performances.

Meet at South 7th and Broadway in front of the Graffiti Garages at 6pm. The parade route is downhill a mere 4 blocks along Broadway and ends at the Pierce Transit park just past the Pantages Theater, which is where the main outdoor stage is for the celebration.

View Larger Map

Helmets are required. Lights are recommended. Costumes, noise-makers, and bike decorations are certainly encouraged. 

Visit www.firstnighttacoma.org for more details on the other First Night activities and to purchase event buttons. 

P.S. Mark your calendars for the Junior Daffodil Parade on April 12, 2014. The theme is "Ready, Set, Grow!" and it seems like the perfect way to kickoff our 2014 Kidical Mass Tacoma season.

A Big Finish to Tacoma's Inaugural Kidical Mass Summer

Last weekend we wrapped up Tacoma's first season of Kidical Mass with our fifth and final ride of the summer. Kidical Mass went Point-to-Point with over 100 kids, parents and friends riding together on the new waterfront trail from Point Defiance Park down to the playground at the Point Ruston development. 

With nearly 250 participants pre-registered for the ride, I was amazed to see so many families turn up on what was a very wet and chilly day. It's evident that Tacomans want their kids to ride!

The Point-to-Point ride was just one component of MetroParks's Downtown To Defiance Sunday Parkways event, a first-of-its-kind activity for Tacoma that opened a 7 mile stretch of our beautiful waterfront solely to cyclists, runners, and pedestrians. MetroParks estimates over 800 people took the opportunity to ride, run or walk part of the trail that morning. 

On behalf of our riders, THANK YOU to the Tacoma Wheelmen's Bicycle Club, Hilltop Pop Shop, Point Ruston, Defiance Bicycles, Downtown On The Go, MetroParks, and the City of Tacoma for organizing this event and supporting Kidical Mass in Tacoma. We're already looking forward to more family rides in 2014!

Get Creative: Decorate Your Helmet

After Kidical Mass #4, I rode downtown to the Tacoma Art Museum where local artists were busy decorating bike helmets. (Many thanks to Tinkertopia owner RR Anderson for the heads-up on this event!)

According to TAM:

"Participating artists will receive a bicycle helmet to decorate, an assortment of mixed media supplies, receive 20 dollars of credit at Tinkertopia, and an honorarium of 50 dollars for participating. During the event there will be a ballot box for people to vote for their favorite helmet. At 3 pm the first, second, and third place will be announced.

After the festival the helmets will be on display at Tacoma Art Museum in the community art space until September 21. On September 22 during the Dome to Defiance Sunday Parkways bicycling event the helmets will be worn by special guests."

It was a beautiful day to work outside and every artist seemed to have a completely different design concept.

Some helmets were already completed and on display inside the museum.

Make sure you attend the Downtown to Defiance event on September 22 to see these works of art in action. TBR will be there to help with Kidical Mass #5: Point to Point. It's going to be rad. 

Kidical Mass #5: Point Defiance to Point Ruston

Tacoma's first Kidical Mass summer is winding down!

Our fifth and final ride of the season will be Sunday, September 22 as part of the Downtown to Defiance: Sunday Parkways event.

Kidical Mass goes Point to Point

Kidical Mass will lead a family-friendly bike ride from the entrance of Point Defiance Park down to Point Ruston on the newly finished section of the waterfront trail. Kids can play on the playground at the halfway point before heading back up the hill for a frozen treat from Hilltop Pop Shop.

The ride starts at 11am, but activities at Point Defiance begin at 10am so plan to arrive early. Look for the Kidical Mass bike corral! Everyone is welcome to join us. 

Visit DowntownToDefiance.com to register for the ride and check-out a full listing of activities.

Downtown to Defiance

The Kidical Mass Point to Point ride is just a small part of the Downtown to Defiance event. MetroParks will close some lanes of Dock Street and Schuster Parkway to car traffic for a limited time in the morning to allow cyclists, runners, skateboarders, etc., to enjoy a waterfront route from the Tacoma Dome to Point Defiance Park. The event will showcase the completion of the interim waterfront trail through the Point Ruston development.

View Downtown To Defiance in a larger map

The whole route is about 7 miles and there will be stops along the way with lots of activities provided by MetroParks. Be sure to visit DowntownToDefiance.com for more details and to register for longer rides with the Tacoma Wheelmen and the VeloFemmes.

If you ride all or part of the Downtown to Defiance route earlier in the morning, you should have plenty of time to join Kidical Mass at 11am. Everyone is welcome.

Point Ruston Waterfront Trail

The interim trail is the missing link between the well developed Ruston Way trail and the many trails and pathways in Point Defiance Park. As of August 23, the trail is roughly graded and will be paved soon.

The trail will be the on the graded roadway on the right

The trail switchbacks around the cliffside above Point Ruston

The trail climbs up a 5% grade from the Copperline Apartments at the north end of Ruston Way. This may be a challenging climb for younger riders, but it also makes a nice walk!

Feel free to leave questions and comments below. We are really excited to be a part of this first-of-its-kind event in Tacoma!

South Tacoma Trail Ride with Kidical Mass

Our fourth Kidical Mass of the summer happened on Saturday. Five families met at South Park for a ride on the Water Ditch Trail, which winds through the South Tacoma neighborhood. Before we started, I scoped out the street crossing at South 56th, the only major arterial on the trail. To my surprise I found a huge car show taking up 6 blocks of nearby South Tacoma Way.

The car show was easily drawing 10 times the normal Saturday morning traffic and the road closure was causing backups and parking issues near the trailhead at South Park. While the kids decorated bikes, the pedal parents discussed how we'd handle the traffic.

There is signage expressly prohibiting pedestrian crossings where the Water Ditch Trail meets 56th Street. Rather than navigate our 15 bikes several blocks up the sidewalk to the traffic signal, we simply waited for a gap and blocked traffic for a minute. It worked OK.

After we crossed and walked up this short incline, we were rather unencumbered for the rest of the ride. There are many small residential street crossings, which gave us opportunities to practice Watch for Cars and Look Both Ways. 

Our destination was Arlington Elementary, where one of our riders had just graduated from preschool. She was excited to tell us about her field trip to Northwest Trek and how she'd be attending kindergarten at Edison Elementary next month, a school which we also rode by. With conviction and maybe even pride, she told us, "I live in South Tacoma." She seemed tickled to be sharing her neighborhood with us.

At Arlington we spent 15 minutes picking up litter from the playground and the ball field. Kids and pedal parents were more than happy to pitch in.

Knowing the afternoon traffic would be heavier, we left the trail and dropped down to Puget Sound Avenue just before 56th Street so we could cross at a traffic light. It was a good choice.

Big kids took the lane and younger riders took the sidewalk for the last six blocks back to the park. Traffic was heavy, but everyone did a great job of sharing the road. At this point I felt the whole group was riding with a poise and confidence that we lacked at the beginning. They made it look easy.

As usual, Jeff's Ice Cream rode along and handed out frozen treats to all of our riders at the finish. South Park is truly a gem of the South Tacoma neighborhood and worth checking out.

Thanks again to the Tacoma Wheelmen's Bicycle Club for supporting Kidical Mass. Our next (and final) ride of the summer, will be on September 22 as part of Metropark's Downtown to Defiance: Sunday Parkway event. Kidical Mass will start at 11am from the Point Defiance Park entrance (look for a special bike corral.) More details will be posted here soon. Mark your calendar!