Lessons from ATX WNBR

dbc here.

Last weekend (9-10 October), about a dozen of H-Town’s WNBR crowd got to experience Austin’s ride. All interurban rivalries and inferiority complexes aside, it was fantastic, I must admit: about 175 riders, most of them Full Monty, with a good mix genders and diverse ages and ethnicities. The topper for me was the brief dance party atop Doug Sahm Hill—not because I’m a dancer, but because it felt like genuine community.

I must throw major props to the crew that facilitated this ride for planning a good route and limiting the potential for chaos. Props also to Austin for the positive reactions we encountered throughout the ride.

The route ending up covering a little more than 10 miles, visiting neighborhoods from North University to the south shore of Lady Bird Lake. There were some stops and long pauses built in for riders to rest and to let the rear guard catch up. There were very few noticeable problems: One rider cramped up about a third of the way through, and some volunteers had to stay with him while the ride continued. The presence of a sag wagon to get the rider and his bike to the next stop might have made that episode less painful. A segment on East 6th Street was mentioned at the start but never happened; after Doug Sahm Hill, we had to mix with a thick throng leaving the Austin City Limits Festival on the pedestrian bridge—not the best timing. There are plans for a “postmortem” to figure out improvements.

The only real law enforcement scare came when we hit the Capitol grounds. We got through the north gate while the security staff was still figuring out what to do about us; we rode a half-circle around the building, passed under the cordon on the south side, & continued southward toward the Colorado River by a very indirect route.

Reformatting H-Town WNBR

Now that we’ve had time to recover from the ride and process how it went, we H-Towners can and should discuss what we might do to increase ridership here. My view is that we’ll have to make some substantial changes. WNBR H-Town has its own traditions & conventions, but it may be time to let some of them go.

Here is one scenario I could suggest: Continue to have two rides, the Main Ride and the Victory Lap, but eliminate most or all of the pub stops from one of the two. For example:

• Main Ride: Make it shorter, announce the route & approximate times of our appearances in the various entertainment corridors (such as Midtown, EaDo, NoDo, Washington Avenue), and have an after-party at the Start/Finish location.
• Victory Lap: Keep it 12-15 miles, with three refreshment stops along the way, and keep the route under wraps until the night of (as we usually do).

The marathon rides we have had here since 2011 can be a bit daunting to folks who don’t ride bikes regularly. (I felt like a non-regular rider on those hills in Austin, partly because I haven’t been riding as much as I had pre-COVID, partly because hills in Houston/H-Town are practically non-existent.) We have kept the rides long in order to make appearances in as many (mostly Inner Loop) districts as possible. I enjoy this format, but I can understand that not everyone does.

One of our regulars has suggested that we should host some monthly fun/social rides, perhaps involving costumery or a Bare As You Dare angle. We might even start this as a subgroup within other, existing group rides. This could help build the WNBR community that we need here. I hope to begin these rides in February or March 2022.

Burn Fat, Not Fossil Fuel

This ride has always focused on three main messages: against fossil fuels and car culture, for safe transportation alternatives, and for bodily freedom. We live in a society, especially in Greater Houston, that makes personal motor vehicles a necessity for most, so it’s easy to let the fossil fuel part slide. However, the climate crisis is intensifying, now affecting affluent countries more than ever. Letting that part slide is tantamount to saying, It’s too depressing even to contemplate, we’ve already passed the tipping point, and there’s no hope left, so let’s ride around nekkid just for funsies while we’re still alive.

While the Austin ride did not ignore the environmental aspect of WNBR, that aspect was de-emphasized. ; however, because Austin’s is the oldest and largest ride in Texas, it attracted riders who drove or flew in not just from out of town but from out of state. Burning fossil fuels to participate in a protest ride against the burning of fossil fuels is, well, not in keeping with the spirit of the ride, again IMHO.

A naked group ride through the city is great fun.

A naked group ride through the city to advocate for cleaner, safer transport options is great fun with a purpose.

A naked group ride through your own city is the ideal way to get the message out in as many places as possible.

I can think of no city that needs to hear this message more than Houston does.

Chicago is an example of a city whose organizers insist on maintaining the ecological component. They choose a Start/Finish with no (or expensive) parking nearby so that riders must cycle or ride public transit to get there.

One of the ATX riders has mentioned, via the Meetup event, that he hopes (finally!) to get a WNBR group up and running in Dallas or Greater DFW. I hope to help him in that effort. In a Metroplex of 4 million-plus, DFW peeps shouldn’t have to travel 200 miles for an event of this kind.