San Jose's Rolling Party

The San Jose Bike Party celebrates its fourth anniversary

October 27, 2011By Mandy Ferreira Riders decorated and lit up their bikes, blasted their music on speakers attached to their bikes or on a trailer towed behind them and dressed up as angels and demons in honor of the "Rapture" themed San Jose Bike Party on Friday night.The San Jose Bike Party is a community bike ride organized and run by volunteers. On the third Friday of every month, people gather to ride their bikes around San Jose in different routes of about 20-30 miles with two stops along the way. The event draws people from all around the Bay Area, including Santa Clara students.More than 4,000 people, many in costumes, hit the San Jose streets with their bikes in celebration of the ride's fourth anniversary on Friday night. Their shouts of "Bike Party" and cheering echoed through the neighborhoods along the route."I like the energy," said freshman Karina Soto, a San Jose native who participated in the Bike Party for her eighth time on Friday night. "(The Bike Party) is a lot of fun and everyone is really open and having a good time."What started out in 2007 as a ride of 20-50 people has turned into a community event that draws thousands of people. All riders are welcome, including avid cyclists and people who have not been on a bike in years."The goal of the ride is to build community through bicycling — that's our motto, and that's really what we do," said Katie Heaney, a volunteer for the Bike Party. "We are fostering a cycling culture in San Jose that maybe wasn't as vibrant before."The Bike Party was described as a "rolling flash-mob" by Andrew Georgette, a Santa Clara alumnus ('08) because of how the information about the ride is spread as well as the enthusiams of the cyclists. Riders must go on the Bike Party's website the day before the ride or hear through word of mouth in order to find out the route."Our ride is to get people who might otherwise be sitting on the couch or going to a bar onto a bike to get out there and meet new people, to do something different on a Friday night, and to get to know other people in San Jose on a bicycle," said Heaney.During the route's breaks, people got off their bikes and danced, met new people or showed off their special talents. One man did a fire dance, while others acted as DJs for dancing groups. Bike jousting and doing tricks on bikes were also popular.Unlike Critical Mass, the San Francisco-based ride where people ride through rush hour traffic and often get into altercations with drivers, the San Jose Bike Party not only schedules their rides to start at 8 p.m. to create the least impact on traffic, but also has rules on how to ride.Riders are expected to stay in the right lane, "roll past conflict," and obey all traffic laws, including stopping at all red lights and stop signs, according to their website. During Friday's ride, Bike Party volunteers and fellow riders reminded one another about the rules and kept the ride generally orderly.The rules and the large groups of people make riders more at ease on the streets. "It's scary to ride on the streets by yourself, so when you get a bunch of people it makes you feel more comfortable," said sophomore Killian Poore.One of the most unique aspects of the San Jose Bike Party is the community support it has generated. As Friday's group rolled through the streets, people honked their horns, came out of their homes to watch and yelled "Bike Party!" to cheer the riders on. As the bicyclists rode through Santana Row and downtown San Jose, people on the streets yelled and cheered just as loud as the thousands of riders that passed by."Car drivers will cheer us on, people who live along our routes for that month will come out and cheer us on like they would a parade," said Heaney. "They are seeing bicycling as something cool to do. I think that we are changing some minds about bicycling in general."Contact Mandy Ferreira at mnferreira@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4582.