Clubs & group ride leaders--please educate your riders!

The following letter to the editor that recently appeared in the KCStar:

On a recent evening, while out with a friend, I came across a large group riding through Mission. It was the usual thing of riding several abreast and ignoring stop signs.

I wonder if any of them noticed the boy, standing with his bike, near one of the stop signs they were ignoring. After they had all passed, he decided to jump on his bike and follow, right through the same stop sign.

Fortunately, the approaching car with the right of way didn’t ignore him and stopped.

Now, children will do such things — they don’t think in terms of obeying traffic laws. A bike ride is just a fun thing to do. So that is why adults have to set an example. But apparently these adults didn’t care about that.

We all need to make a special effort to remember to follow traffic and safety laws and rules whenever riding, but especially on group rides.

If you lead a group ride I hope you will take a moment before each ride to remind your riders about the rules of group riding. Most of us know what to do, but everyone needs a little reminder and encouragement on a regular basis.

I've noticed myself and had others report to me that rides and riders around the state do not always follow the best practices. So it's not just motorists complaining--and we do have room for improvement!

See some common sense group riding guidelines from MassBike here.