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Neighborhoodsby Laura Flynn8:45 amSep 17, 20120

A ride to show families that cycling city streets is fun – and safe

The first Baltimore Family Bike Party

Above: Leaving the sidewalk behind, kids and parents got a carefully-controlled experience of road biking.

Thinking families need a little encouragement to try biking in the city, a group of Baltimore cycling advocates organized a weekend ride for them on the Guilford Avenue bike boulevard and the quiet streets of the Abell and Ednor Gardens neighborhoods.

A few among the 10 or so families who came out Saturday afternoon, needed more encouragement than others.

“I’m nervous,” Zawadi Sankofa confided, before the Baltimore Family Bike Party event started. As children decorated their bikes with pipe cleaners, crepe paper and balloons, eight-year-old Zawadi had been quieter than the others.

“We usually ride on the sidewalks in the neighborhoods,”John Sankofa said, explaining that this was his daughter’s first group bike ride in the streets.

The experience was new for some kids but the adults were thrilled with the rare opportunity to give their children that safety-in-numbers experience that is one of the attractions of adult group rides.

Biking on the sidewalk is technically illegal in Baltimore, but many in the city, particularly parents and children, break the rules to avoid the zooming cars and trucks and other hazards.

Saturday’s afternoon ride on quiet streets, the first of several the group is planning, was designed for maximum safety and to calm any jitters:

Departing from Stadium Place, the group of roughly 30 cyclists was led by organizer Patrick McMahon, also on his bike. Chris Merriam, of Bikemore, followed behind in his car. Organizers and parents took turns watching for traffic whenever the cyclists came to an intersection.

Being in a group, several parents said, helped them feel more at ease with the idea of their children pedaling on the streets.

“When you’re with more bikers, its more comforting,” said Tiara Connor who had a three-year-old on a rear seat.

Starting Young

Organizers of the Family Bike Party event said it was in the spirit of, though not officially connected to, Baltimore Bike Party. (That’s the group that has been mounting increasingly crazy-popular bike happenings, like August’s Moonlight Madness ride that drew hundreds.)

At Saturday’s kid-friendly version, the children in one family appeared well on their way to joining Baltimore’s booming bike scene. Each of the Evans kids rode their own bikes, even four-year-old Delaney who said her bike was named “Chompy.”

The Sackett family, ready to roll. (Photo by Laura Flynn)

The Sackett family, ready to roll. (Photo by Laura Flynn)

“I’ve actually biked in Ocean City,” her eight-year-old brother Jackson said. “This’ll be the easiest ride for me.”

Nearby, the youngest rider, seven-month-old Leo Bramante, had it even easier: lounging in a towed bike trailer, he sucked away on his pacifier as his father Anthony did the pedaling.

Potholes and Pre-schoolers?

Organizers said parents have good reason to be concerned about their children’s safety on Baltimore streets, with their abundant potholes, often intermittent bike lanes and speeding drivers. But they said bike-friendly streets do exist in the city – and the route chosen Saturday was designed to showcase some.

“Biking on the roads is scary if you go on the wrong roads,” said Eli Pousson, one of the Family Bike Party organizers.

“But if you know where the good bike roads are, being on the streets is … safe and enjoyable,” said Pousson, whose two-year-old daughter Dahlia was sitting in a seat on his handlebars.

By the time they returned to Stadium Place, the event got a big thumbs-up from everyone, including Zawadi, who biked in the front of the group the whole way.

“I loved it,” she said.

And her father affirmed that, on October 20th, they’ll be going to the next Baltimore Family Bike Party ride starting at the Patterson Park Pagoda.

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