Yesterday we stopped at Mattocks Park in Saint Paul with the kids between running a bank errand and heading to Lunds, and I’m glad we did because we ran into a bike assembly that I’ve long been curious about.
A year ago I briefly had a conversation with some parent about biking around the cities, and safe biking behaviors for kids, and they mentioned something called Kidical Mass. I remember shortly after I tried searching the web for more information, but I wasn’t really able to get any more clear information. For a year I’ve had the itch to stop at the MN Bike Alliance office in Longfellow to ask if they knew anything about Kidical Mass. I never did make it over there and eventually I started to wonder if it was just something that was always going to elude me.
Well, yesterday at Mattocks I ran into the organizers of Kidical Mass St Paul as they prepared to start a group ride from the park to Lake Monster Brewing. Drawn in by their cool Urban Arrow with a custom DIY sunshade, not to mention the front bench seat and rainbow decals on the front bucket, I was finally able to get all the info I had been missing, here is what I learned…
Kidical Mass
Kidical Mass is inspired by a larger organization called Critical Mass, which aims to push forward pro-bike (and other urbanist ideas) issues via community engagement in the form of large group rides.
A Kidical Mass group ride consists of families riding via their own bikes, cargo bikes, e-bikes, trailers, kid’s bikes, tag-alongs, etc. They generally start at one park and end at another, though as demonstrated yesterday they terminated at a brewery (with a pizza restaurant next door) and for September the St Paul group was considering finishing at a Saints baseball game. Rides are a few miles, and they stick mostly to side streets, bike paths, and protected bike lanes. Parents ensure that someone is always present at intersections and no one is left behind.
The group I saw was about 15-20 bikes and was described as a “good number”. From what I can tell from a quick skim of media presence, it seems like the Saint Paul group is a little more active than the South Minneapolis group, though both have one ride a month. Ages for kids were from toddlers to late elementary from what I saw.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make the ride with them, but here is a recent Streets.MN blog post about it. I wish I had pursued this harder since last year, as it definitely feels like my kind of crowd. Regardless, I have the September 13th date on my calendar for the next ride.
More Biking Resources
If you are interested in connecting with a wider biking community, I also came across another family oriented biking group, hosted by Perennial Cycle near Lake Bde Mka Ska. Every fourth Saturday at 9:30am, with similar route planning as Kidical Mass, though that wraps up in September.
Also, the bike skills course at Lake Nokomis has been removed and will be replaced by new tennis courts at that site (which prior to the skills park was previously tennis courts). A new bike skills course will be installed further east along the creek bike trail at 34th Avenue where another set of old tennis courts has been torn out. Project summary is here (pdf).
Other Biking Resources
- Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota – advocates for pro-bike policy at the local and state level, and offers many resources for biking at all ages including classes.
- Tretbaugh Bike Skills and Pump Track in Bloomington – A new bike skills course off France Ave and 90th Street. Beginner to Advanced tracks.
- Taft Bike Park in Richfield – A “single track” course with beginner and intermediate courses (alongside a playground), near Home Depot in Richfield.
- mplsBikeParks.org – A directory of existing courses and proposed courses and additional related resources.