Round up of Kidical Mass weekend May 2023

Kidical Mass is a global movement to allow children and young people to be able to safely and independently travel by cycle wherever they live.

A so-called "Kidical Mass" is a group cycle ride where people take over the streets to celebrate cycling and call for safer streets.

After two very successful global action weekends in 2022, last weekend saw another coordinated effort to get families and friends together to call for safer streets.

This time, the actions were not limited to Kidical Mass group cycle rides, but also included Bike Buses and Play Streets.

Over 500 towns across the world took part and an estimated 150,000 people came together to take action and to call for child friendly towns and cities.

Germany saw the most actions taking place, but the UK has been playing catch up and a whopping 20 towns held a Kidical Mass ride or organised a Bike Bus.

Thankfully rain didn’t stop play at Brum’s #KidicalMass today! What a joyous event 💚🧑🏻‍🦰🚲🧒🏼🚲🧒🏽🍃#StreetsforEveryone #StreetsforKids pic.twitter.com/HsMWWNqGJE

— Kirsten de Vos 🍃🚶🏻‍♀️🚲💚 (@KirstendeVos) May 8, 2023

Kidical Mass is gaining traction in the UK

At the last global action weekend, in September 2022, 15 towns in the UK took part, with a lot of them organising their first Kidical Mass ever.

At the time of writing, there are at least 35 groups actively organising Kidical Mass rides in the UK.

Most of the Kidical Mass rides took place between 5 and 7 May 2023, with further actions planned later this month (due to the Coronation weekend) with a total of 20 Kidical Mass rides in the UK as part of this global action.

With a little help from existing groups, new groups have started and the handy 'how to set up a Kidical Mass' article is often referred to.

Some experienced organisers also held webinars to encourage others to start their own Kidical Mass and these were very well received.

If you're interested to learn more, join the Kidical Mass UK Facebook group.

A few groups held their first Kidical Mass ever, including Southampton, Bridgwater, Guildford and Earlswood and Redhill.

Well done to all the people who came together and organised their first cycling protest, especially with the wet weather conditions for most people riding on Saturday and Monday!

Some first time organisers managed to drum up a spectacular number of participants.

The growing movement in the UK and the growing number of participants is showing that there's a real appetite for safe cycling infrastructure, to accommodate for all ages.

Well done to everyone who took part!

Thanks to everyone who came along to #Bridgwater's first ever #KidicalMass!
We had a fantastic turnout and everyone had an amazing time!
See you at the next one!#StreetsForAll #StreetsForKids @KinderaufsRad pic.twitter.com/MXZx9zOqHg

— Bridgwater Area Cycling Campaign (@bwcyclecampaign) May 8, 2023

A research group in Amsterdam is now studying the global movement for child-friendly cities - including activities like Kidical Mass, Bike buses, and School streets.

They would like to hear from both Kidical Mass organisers and participants.

Would you mind helping them by sharing your experiences through their survey?

On 22-24 September 2023 the next Kidical Mass global action weekend will be taking place.

If you're thinking of setting up a Kidical Mass ride in your own town, this is a great time to get started!

Find out more

• Find out more about Kidical Mass
• How to set up a Kidical Mass ride