by
Mickey Lyons: "Slow Roll will lose the goodwill of the neighborhoods."
Mickey Lyons of Hamtramck dares to publicly call out the Slow Roll weekly bicycle expedition, expressing major concerns at Model D about "an event that has grown so massively in such a short time."
It's time for Slow Roll leadership to consider that the astonishing success of the ride necessitates better organization, and, yes, maybe even a cap on [the number of] riders. . . .
Much as they wish it were still a small group of friends rolling through town for a pleasant ride, the event regularly swells to thousands of riders, along with dozens of volunteer nurses and a paid escort by the Detroit Police Department. In almost every neighborhood they ride through, that police escort shuts down major city streets.
Lyons, a cyclist who hasn't joined the Monday night mass tours, speaks out because "the events of the Monday, June 6 Slow Roll that began and ended here have left me, and many of my fellow Hamtramckans, with a bitter taste."
Stanley Brooks, a Detroit rider, posts this shot from the June 6 roll at the group's Facebook page.
She adds:
The ride began and ended at the Fowling Warehouse on Conant Street at the invitation of Fowling ownership. Neither Fowling nor Slow Roll informed anyone with the city of Hamtramck at any time before the event that it was to take place here.
The only warning for city residents and officials came from a Facebook post a few hours before the ride, written by a Hamtramck resident who just happened to find out about it. City officials—and more importantly, police—were simply never told that nearly 6,000 bikers would be taking over the streets in just a few hours.
With a Detroit Police escort directing traffic. In an already parking-challenged city. On the first night of Ramadan.
It was not what I would call a good PR move for Slow Roll.
Slow Roll rider greets a Detroit officer stopping traffic June 20. (Facebook photo by Mike Boening)
The writer, a 2007 Wayne State graduate and published historian, lays out a call for action:
While Slow Roll might have started as a casual, vastly smaller group ride, it has grown to the point where much more stringent measures must be taken to ensure safety. The membership program, adopted last year, has done little to curtail the growth.
At what point, it must be asked, will Slow Roll reach critical mass? When does it need to start turning riders away, or splitting the ride into smaller, more manageable groups? At what point are the crowds and the traffic and the inconvenience more damaging to the communities through which Slow Roll travels than they are pleasant for the riders? . . .
If they don't take steps to change, to get back to their roots and original mission of fostering a "positive energy and community driven atmosphere," Slow Roll will lose the goodwill of the neighborhoods through which it rides. It already has in Hamtramck.
Earlier critic:
So Long, Slow Roll | By John G. Rodwan, Jr.. | Belt Magazine | Oct. 15, 2015
