Mural bike ride in Brunswick, GA, and why we should do more of them.

On January 17, local riders in Brunswick, GA will host a ride for people to view their town’s murals. Terry Dickson reports for The Brunswick News:

Beyond that, he said it’s a great way to show off the downtown area and draw attention to the hard work put in by artists, city officials and business owners to beautify his hometown.

“I think it’s going to be pretty significant,” Robert McDonald said. “It’s a good little ride, it only takes about an hour, an hour and a half. It’s good for beginners, it’s not fast-paced. It’s on alleyways and side streets, with history and cobbles. It’s a good ride.”

I don’t have any affiliation with this event, but I love the idea of it. It seems like a great way to build a community around the joy of riding bicycles.

An unfortunate side-effect of our pandemic era is that many community and cultural activities have been restricted to car drivers. From drive-throughs to curbside services, we’ve sidelined bicycle riders and pedestrians. But this isn’t because picking up your food in a car is necessarily safer than on foot. This is an accident of our car-centric infrastructure. It’s about time we offered activities for non-drivers too.

Many people (including myself) go out and ride bicycles together just for the sake of riding bicycles. That’s great, but it’s also important to have events with a purpose beyond simply riding.