Over 40 riders joined the 3rd NSW Safe Cycling Ride last weekend for a fun and educating ride.
Back in June, we caught up with Gina who is passionate about creating safer cycling. She came up with the idea to help humanise bike riders to encourage vehicles to provide safer distance when they overtake riders.
Safety Bibs
To do this, she created bibs with phrases like “I’m A Mum”, “I’m a Dad”, “My Family Needs Me” in order to help road users see bike riders as people too.
Since then, Gina has even organised rides to further help encourage bike riders to participate in her advocacy mission.
Safety Ride
“Watching the regos increase substantially the week before our 3rd ride confirmed what I already knew – this was going to be our biggest and best ride so far”, Gina told us.
Everyone met outside the Hornsby Aquatic and Leisure Centre on a warm Sunday morning. Ride leaders finalised the groups on the morning of the ride based on skill levels of the cyclists.
The two groups of 20, with ride leaders and sweeps, rolled out en route to Saddles Cafe, Restaurant & Nursery in Mt White via Brooklyn.
“By sticking to the rules and in tight bunches we kept ourselves safe, and with our safety bibs communicated with drivers of the right thing to do when passing cyclists. That’s the 1.5m gap in speed zones over 60km/hr and 1m gap in speed zones under 60km/hr,” said Gina
“On returning to Hornsby I started thinking about what an amazing morning we’d had. Cars, motorbikes and bicycles sharing the road so nicely. The awareness of bicycle riders is crucial to encourage more people to feel safe to get out on their bikes and ride.”
If you would like to get a safety bib before your next ride please visit here.
