Charlotte cyclists to fill streets on 7-mile ride to protest car-friendly road plans
Cyclists hope to fill uptown and neighborhood streets Friday night on a 7-mile ride to protest what they call city and state transportation plans far too focused on accommodating cars over people.
“People in this city routinely forget that the roads belong to everyone equally — motorists, cyclists, skaters, scooters and pedestrians all have an inherent right to exist on our streets,” John Holmes, an organizer of Charlotte Critical Mass Ride, posted on Reddit.
“The roads are not just for cars, and to act as if they are is in defiance of hundreds, if not thousands, of years of people existing freely on our streetscapes,” Holmes wrote. “This ride is a physical reminder of that right.”
Holmes said he hopes at least 50 riders will join the ride, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the Spoke Easy bicycle shop, 1530 Elizabeth Ave., in the Elizabeth neighborhood. The ride will through wind through the Elizabeth neighborhood, in or near Chantilly, Plaza Midwood, uptown and South End, before returning to the bike shop.
A promotional poster welcomes people to take “anything that rolls” to the ride.
The pace of the ride will be “S-L-O-W,” according to the poster, which bills the event as “a fun-filled social ride” for “all ages and abilities.”
The ride will take place rain or shine, Holmes said.
“Come see what your city would be like if the bicycle was the main choice of transit!” according to the poster.
No permit needed, a ride organizer says
“We do not need a permit,” Holmes told The Charlotte Observer on Tuesday, because cyclists have as much of a right to the streets as cars do.
The riders also didn’t seek a police escort, at the request of Black community members who don’t view police the same way many whites do, he said.
A city of Charlotte spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment about Friday’s event.
The nation’s first such Critical Mass ride was held in San Francisco in 1992, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Charlotte’s first such ride was organized in 1999 by a group unrelated to the current effort, according to Holmes, who co-founded the Charlotte Urbanists grassroots activist group. The last article found in Observer archives about such a ride in Charlotte was in 2011.
Poorer areas left out, advocate says
In late 2021, at the Observer’s request, the city released a list of 250 planned road, bike-lane, sidewalk and intersection improvement projects that officials said would make it easier and safer getting through town.
And in April, the first leg of 7 miles of planned bicycle lanes in uptown Charlotte opened. The new lanes along Fifth and Sixth streets aim to improve safety for cyclists, walkers, joggers and drivers alike, city officials said at an event celebrating the Uptown CycleLink Program.
The eventual 7 miles of lanes will connect to a 40-mile network of bike lanes across Charlotte, officials said.
Holmes said the city has made progress, but too many of its bicycle-network improvements are in wealthier areas.
“We cannot claim to be an equitable city yet routinely refuse to build out infrastructure that keeps our poorest and most vulnerable citizens safe.”
And a comprehensive network of safe, protected cycle lanes pales in cost to a highway expansion costing hundreds of millions of dollars, he said.
This story was originally published May 26, 2022 at 6:00 AM.