Kidical Mass, the family-friendly, law-abiding bike ride, will be celebrating the two-wheeled mode of transportation in a ride from Ballard to Gas Works Park on Saturday.
The ride will take off from Ballard Commons Park (5701 22nd Ave. NW) at 9 a.m. (sharp), head to Fremont to take part in the 3-mile New Belgium Tour de Fat bike parade which finishes up at Gas Works for the family-friendly Tour de Fat event.
“Bring your freak bikes, your kids, and a fly outfit or costume. The Tour de Fat looks to be a lot of fun, and we’ll arrive in time for their 10am bike parade, which is ‘a costumed celebration of human-powered transportation,'” the Totcycle website states. To save yourself some time, Kidical Mass organizers encourage participants to print out the parade registration form (.pdf) and drop it off when you get to Fremont. (Photo courtesy Julian Davies.)
![](https://www.myballard.com/wp-content/uploads/2024-My-Ballard-Tile-Ad-Troop-100.png")
That’s the ticket, getting to ’em while they’re young and indoctrinating them into future jerks in traffic demanding more for themselves while the war on vehicles continues. I’m still waiting for “biker-ed”. License plates after mandatory safety classes. As in boaters. You do want to pay “your fair share” right? You are for safety, right? Let the users pay-for-play.
Thanks Norwegian for pointing out the cost subsidies associated with driving a car. If we all paid for the costs of our transportation choices and no subsidies exist the price of gas would be surprisingly expensive. I have no problem with bikers paying their fair share as long as car drivers do the same. One of the most extensive reports on the true cost of gas was done by Hart and Spivak. Here is a quote from a reviewer of their work.
“To what extent is automobile use a “free” good? According to Hart and Spivak, government subsidies for highways and parking alone amount to between 8 and 10 percent of our gross national product, the equivalent of a fuel tax of approximately $3.50 per gallon. If this tax were to account for “soft” costs such as pollution cleanup and emergency medical treatment, it would he as high as $9.00 per gallon. The cost of these subsidies-approximately $5,000 per car per year-is passed directly on to the American citizen in the form of increased prices for products or, more often, as income, property, and sales taxes. This means that the hidden costs of driving are paid by everyone: not just drivers, but also those too old or too poor to drive a car. And these people suffer doubly, as the very transit systems they count on for mobility have gone out of business, unable to compete with the heavily subsidized highways.”
So the true cost of driving if reflected in a gallon of gas, about $12.00 per gallon. Think that would change driving habits? It would mine. Be careful what you wish for Norwegian, do you really want pay-for-play for users?
Oh, and by the way I have seen jerks drive cars as well, just yesterday in fact.
“Law abiding” and “bike ride” – used in the same sentence?
So Norwegian are you saying that bikes aren’t using the same roads that cars drive on? Do they not park their bikes on sidewalks and city provided bike racks for free? They seem to be using the BG Trail for free and want new trails built for them for free. So where are we going to add that tax onto? Should we add it in to the sales tax of the bike over the estimated yearly use of the bike? When a bike runs into a stopped vehicle and does damage and drives off and leaves the driver standing there with no way to identify the cyclist, should we add the possibility of this into the sales tax? And what about the polution of all of that Spandex:)? Should we add that into the tax as well?
When has a bike ever caused serious damage to a car and then sped off never to be seen again?
When has a car ever hit another car, bike or person and sped off? Oh right, every single day.
The potential for damage from a bike is about 1/2000th that of a car. Quit crying and start pedaling.
“‘Law abiding’ and ‘bike ride’ – used in the same sentence?”
Yeah, it’s about as great a contradiction as “law abiding motorist’!! Last I checked it was cars that killed 34,000 people last year, not bikes. It’s also cars that are the single greatest cause of death of children (doubt this? take a look at the CDC website!) Just last night two pedestrians were run down by a motorist in Queen Anne.
Motorists have ZERO room to complain about cyclists not obeying the laws. Motorists are FAR more egregious violators of traffic laws than cyclists. Also when a cyclist disobeys a traffic law innocent people don’t get killed. Can’t say the same about motorists.
” the war on vehicles continues. ”
Hey jackass: bicycles ARE vehicles according to the laws in all 50 states. As for a war on motorists, how stupid are you? Last I checked motorists gobble up WAY more tax dollars than all other forms of transportation combined and multiplied several times over.
Saying there’s a war on motorists is like claiming white males are being oppressed even though they’ve dominated the Presidency, Congress, Senate, Supreme Court and board rooms of almost every single major company in this country.
BTW, I own 2 cars AND several bikes which means I pay WAY more taxes than you so stay the f**k off MY road!!
What? there is a war on vehicles(cars)? Automobiles kill about 5000 pedestrians and 800 bicyclists a year. If their is a war on motorists I think the motorists are winning.
The article is about Kidical mass, to bad we do not have a safe path for our children through our neighborhood.
Old Ballard is too stupid to understand why biking is good and oil companies are bad.
That’s ok. Old Ballard is irrelevant and fat. They will die off soon and take their entitled attitudes and crap box cars with them.
Bikes for kids for the win.
Norwegian and all his cranky old time Scandanavian friends can suck it.
hey “Love Ballard’ why the ‘tude?
Oil Companies are bad? Hope you never eat seafood. It doesn’t get to your plate by magic fairy dust, boats fueled by oil go get the fish and bring it back to put on your plate.
The fact is the USA is about 4.5% of the world population and we use 25% of the worlds oil production. Oil is a finite resource, and 2/3 of the oil we use is imported. Oil and gas use within this country is heavily subsidized. Our oil use within this country will change in the future, like it or not, oil will run out. After we run out the earth will produce more oil, but we need to wait about 20 million years or so.
We all use oil, lots of it, we are addicted. It is all too common for us to use our F250 to drive a half mile to the corner store to buy a pack of smokes.
The article is about kids using bikes. They are the ones that will feel the effects when oil runs out. Good for them and their parents for getting them involved in a healthy activity.
Sailor must not eat seafood I guess.
gts206 is a classic old Ballard idiot. Who can possibly defend oil at the expense of kids and bikes?
“Sailor must not eat seafood I guess.”
Wrong, I do eat and enjoy seafood. As I said in my post, we all use oil directly and indirectly. My point is that oil is a finite resource and as Americans we use a disproportionately large amount of oil. We started using oil about 150 years ago at an exponentially growing rate. We have used about half the world supply at this time. Soon, future generations will increasing oil scarcities until we run out. Like it or not our society will change.
I think it is great we are encouraging kids to bike, for both environmental and health reasons.
Even the owners of this blog are siding with Ballard Oil company and their lawsuit against extending the bike trail in Ballard.
So all you green types with kids can go whine elsewhere. Not sure why the GeekySwedes even covered this event given their involvement in the Ballard Chamber and opposition to the trail.
well, oil not bikes that is not the position the blog owners stated when they last posted on the subject. Yes they are members of the evil chamber but they were not active in the meeting or the decision process as I recall. As a media provider I would hope they remain neutral on subjects and just report the facts.
Also, are you suggesting the blog owners should not report community news? Kidical mass souds like a great event for our community.
Sailor, the owners of this blog support the lawsuit because they continue to remain members of the Chamber which is one of the plaintiffs.
It’s hard to be a plaintiff and against the lawsuit you’re bringing at the same time.
If the GeekySwedes are agains the lawsuit, they would quit the Chamber. It’s that simple.
They’d rather chase a few extra bucks then do what is right for the neighborhood.
“What is right for the neighborhood” is a matter of opinion.
I think The Norwegean has a very good point:
If you think bikes should not be licensed, then neither should boats.
If you think bikers should not need mandatory bikersEd, then neither should boats.
Truth is:
boaters need both; why not bikes?
Biker – If I quit every group that made a decision I did not agree with, I wouldn’t be a US citizen anymore. However, overall I like it here, even though I often disagree with decisions that get made. The same goes for Washington State and Seattle, and a number of other groups I belong to. I don’t see how belonging to the BCC is different.
I’m a member of QFC and I don’t even like everything they sell!
Idiots, all of you…
GeekySwedes suck for supporting the lawsuit. Rationalize all you want. For many of us it is all we need to know about how much they truly care about Ballard’s residents, not Ballard’s rich oil company owner.
I still think it is quite a jump from the fact the GS’s belong to the BCC to saying they support the lawsuit. I belong to the BCC becasue I support many things they do, but I oppose the lawsuit and I oppose the BCC stance on the lawsuit.