The Mission Cycling Community has a new monthly event. Each month on the last Sunday, the group has been hosting a Critical Mass Ride.
The first ride occurred in September and has grown in popularity as word spread. The rides started at Heritage Park middle school, and the route is across town on Seventh Avenue to the west end of the proposed cycling corridor at Wren Street and returning along the same route.
They are family-friendly rides with kids joining under their own power, or with the help of their parents.
The group are hosting the final event of 2017 on Sunday, Dec. 31. It will be a New Year’s party ride to celebrate the events of 2017 and a bright future for cycling in Mission in 2018.
The event starts at the usual time, 3 p.m., but with a new start location for the party.
Riders are to meet at the Mission Leisure Centre parking lot at 2:45 p.m. with the ride departing at 3 p.m. on the regular route along Seventh Avenue.
Once back at the start, there will be a New Year’s bike party with hot drinks and snacks provided by the group and some sponsors. The requirements to join this ride are a bike, a helmet and preferably an ugly holiday sweater.
The ride runs rain or shine. Come out and meet some new riding friends, or just join to show support.
The group has also setup a website dedicated to the cycling community in Mission at missionridesbikes.org.
This site is a place online for riders to find information and opportunities to ride bikes at a variety of events. Questions can be directed to criticalmass@missionridesbikes.org.
About the group:
In the spring of 2017, the District of Mission formed a Cycling Task Force to provide some information and insight into the needs of the cycling community, primarily with respect to bike lanes and infrastructure. That group presented a staff report and their recommendations to mayor and council in September which were discussed and have resulted in the initiation of the process to develop designs of a buffered bike lane on Seventh Avenue.
That project is in alignment with the objectives both in the Transportation Master Plan (TMP) and the recent update to the Official Community Plan (OCP).
Through this process, the group of cyclists who joined the task force realized that a unified voice for the recreational and transportation cycling community in Mission was missing, so the Mission Cycling Community Group was formed and an initial event conceived to create a home and gathering place for them.