Your playbook for starting a family biking group

If you lived or spent time on Capitol Hill on Saturdays this past year, you may have seen or heard bicycle riders of all ages riding en masse around the neighborhood. If you did, you likely witnessed a Hill Family Biking ride (lucky you!). Hill Family Biking was established in early 2023 by a group of friends and neighbors with the goal of spreading bike joy across Capitol Hill and the surrounding neighborhoods.

After our big “Hello World” announcement on GGWash, Hill Family Biking had a successful first calendar year. We hosted 10 family-friendly bike rides with hundreds of participants, our Halloween ride attracted 275 bikers. We even won a Ward 6 Brickie Award for Civic Pride from Councilmember Charles Allen.

Hill Family Biking’s success has garnered a lot of attention and folks have been reaching out wanting to learn how they can bring the magic of Hill Family Biking to their neighborhood. Many folks had similar questions and concerns, so we wrote a playbook to document everything Hill Family Biking. This post is an abridged version of that playbook so you can start your own family biking group.

Getting Started: Be Hyperlocal!

When we started Hill Family Biking, we were intentional about wanting to be hyperlocal. Accessibility was our primary goal, and we felt that hyperlocality was the best way to achieve that goal. If potential participants new to biking or the bike-curious had to travel 4-5 miles to get to one of our events, we knew we would lose them.

Overall, hyperlocality made everything easier. We were able to recruit an all-star organizing committee with half a dozen members. Collaborations with other organizations came easy, and supporting local businesses became a natural extension of our rides.

Route Distance: 4-5 miles is the Sweet Spot

What is the Goldilocks distance for a family biking ride? All Hill Family Biking rides have been roughly 4-5 miles at a 6-8 mph speed, the ride, which includes regular stops to keep the group together, takes about 45 minutes to complete. Ironically, Capitol Hill isn’t very hilly. The time and distance for your ride may vary depending on your neighborhood topography. Keeping the ride to about 45 minutes gives people a substantial event but still enough time for programming after the ride.

This distance isn’t appropriate for new, young riders, so we ask that all our independent riders have at least 1-2 years of two-wheel biking experience. This policy and ride distance attracts both older kids and young kids, many of whom simply ride on their parents’ bikes. My daughter loves riding on the back of my bike, participating in the ride theme, and interacting with everyone else on the ride. And she has something to look forward to and gradually grow into instead of quickly growing out of.

Route Planning: It’s Hard. Keep it Simple

Keeping a large group of riders of all ages together and safe while exploring new and exciting routes can be a big challenge, especially if your neighborhood is bounded by dangerous streets. That said, here are some general rules to follow when planning routes

1) Routes should be quasi-circular. The ride start and end should be less than a mile from each other. This will ensure your participants are comfortable getting home after the ride.

2) Avoid protected bike lanes. This may seem counterintuitive, but protected bike lanes will stretch out your group due to their narrow width and make your ride less safe. Hill Family Biking routes often highlight protected bike lanes, but we lead the ride into the travel lane and announce that those who want to use the lanes are welcome.

3) One-way, one-lane streets are the best. This makes conflict with car traffic less likely and intersection interactions less complex. Bonus points if there’s a painted bike lane for added road width. I recommend limiting the use of neighborhood streets with two-way traffic unless there is a double yellow running throughout.

4) 4-way stop intersections are gold. These intersections promote slower speeds and allow your group to roll through as a group more easily. When I do encounter signaled intersections, I usually take that opportunity to stop for a cycle or two and allow the group to get together.

Above all else, keep things simple. The fewer turns on a route, the easier it will be to keep everyone safe and together. We also use Felt for a fun way to share the route and always do a dry run to scout any potential issues

Event Promotion: Use social media agnostic tools

When it comes to promoting a family biking event, there is only one rule: Get those email addresses! Using an agnostic tool like Eventbrite as your vehicle for promoting rides will collect email addresses, easily embed them into your website, allow registrants to add your event to their calendar, and provide an intuitive interface to share event information. Eventbrite did recently introduce a more aggressive freemium model, but I think it’s still worthwhile.

Once you’ve created an Eventbrite (or similar interface) for your ride, sharing via social media channels is important but also remember to share with local blogs and news channels. I always submit our events on the GGWash calendar and hyperlocal blogs like the Hill is Home. These websites have much stronger followings on social media than Hill Family Biking ever will, so why not leverage their built-in audiences to promote events?

Fun themes like “Back to School” and “Halloween” will also aid in promoting rides.

Day of Logistics: Define Clear Roles

The day of logistics can seem daunting especially as the size of the ride grows north of 200 participants. The key to success lies in defining clear roles and over-communicating. Hill Family Biking recently purchased a megaphone and walkie-talkies, making communication before and during the ride easier.

The two most important roles are “the lead”—-who no one is allowed to pass—- and “the sweep” who ensures everyone is accounted for. That doesn’t mean that everyone needs to finish the ride. Stuff happens, and riders may need to leave the ride, but effectively communicating will avoid confusion.

We have one organizer in charge of ensuring we have enough ride marshals (ie safety ambassadors) and a historian who is in charge of taking photos and videos to document all our rides.

Collaborations, Collaborations and More Collaborations

Hill Family Biking has grown quickly due in large part to our collaborations. MPD 1st District community outreach officers have participated in all of our rides by bicycle from day one, and a partnership like that is critical when you’re endeavoring to put young riders on city streets and ease tension with impatient drivers.

We’ve also collaborated with DC Queer Bikes on a Family Pride Ride. Maria Helena Carey, who co-produces The Hill is Home, judged the costume contest on our Halloween. We’ve partnered with the DC Public Library and their Library to Go-Go cargo bike on several rides. And we’ve had local elected leaders like Councilmember Charles Allen join on our rides and speak at our unofficial ribbon cutting for the C St NE street safety project.

You can never have enough collaborations!

Ready to Start a Family Biking Group? What’s Next?

Even though this article is packed with great information, there’s nothing like experiencing the real thing if you’re interested in starting a family biking group in your neighborhood or if you just want to come have some fun.

Check out our events page for all our upcoming events, including our Ride to Ice Skating at Canal Park on January 27th, and feel free to reach out to hillfamilybiking@gmail.com if you have any questions. Hope to see you soon on a Hill Family Biking ride!