‘A social movement’: Richmond bike group claims the road

Peggy Stansbery, Staff Writer

“It started as a group of friends just riding bikes during the pandemic just trying to get out of the house, have some fun and not really worry about anything,” said Zach Bazemore, a founder and social media coordinator for Broad Street Bullies. “Now it’s one of the biggest rides.” 

Hundreds of bikers fill the streets every other Sunday for the Broad Street Bullies ride, oftentimes impeding traffic. 

These rides occur weekly on Thursdays from March to November, according to Bazemore. 

Bazemore said he and his friends had observed big bike cultures in other cities and wanted to help grow the culture in Richmond. 

As wheelie enthusiasts, they noticed that while Richmond offered a variety of bike groups, it lacked a wheelie-based ride. Wanting to bring that aspect of bike culture to Richmond, they created the Broad Street Bullies, Bazemore said. 

The Broad Street Bullies started in 2020 but “really took off” in 2022, according to Bazemore. Since then there have been around 300 people at every ride.

Bazemore said when they started the Broad Street Bullies, they were trying to make the streets safer for bikers and he has seen it affecting Richmond’s bike culture. He said he knows people who started to ride bikes because of the group. 

“It has definitely impacted biking in Richmond a lot,” Bazemore said. “Seeing 300 people biking on the streets every week makes people pay attention to bikers more. I think people are a lot more comfortable riding the street now than before we started.”

Bazemore said that after every ride, the Broad Street Bullies receive negative feedback on Reddit. 

Complainers on Reddit have described the Broad Street Bullies as “reckless,” “dangerous,” “inconvenient” and “lawless,” according to a Richmond Reddit thread. 

“We joke about it, but we don’t really pay attention to it,” Bazemore said. “Because we are riding by and we will be by you in four to five minutes, you can wait your turn.”

Masha Timina, who rides with and organizes for Recess 4Ever, a bike group for and by queer people, said they have experienced this backlash. 

“I have myself experienced the Richmond road rage,” Timina said. “While there are bike-inclusive areas where the cyclist symbol is drawn on the asphalt, if the street has two lanes and the integrated bike lane is fully occupied by a group of cyclists, cars will merge without blinkers in frustration, therefore causing traffic buildup, further aggression and reckless driving.”

Timina said this will often include “cyclist slander” where the driver complains they were late because of a cyclist in the street, seen in the Reddit comments directed towards the Broad Street Bullies. 

“The Bullies do like to play around on urban infrastructure, but they are not what makes driving dangerous,” Timina said. 

The “overwhelming” car-centric design of the city forces the Broad Street Bullies to take “extreme measures,” such as blocking intersections to stop oncoming traffic to ensure the group’s safety, Timina said. 

“The Bullies are an enormous group of riders that own up to their name, and physically take back streets from cars,” Timina said. “They interrupt the hustle and bustle of daily mindless life with an enjoyable hobby that simultaneously highlights important issues about pedestrian dignity and car-centric city planning.”

Groups like Recess 4Ever and the Broad Street Bullies help carve out spaces for cyclists to exist in the city, Timina said. 

VCU professor of urban planning and public policy Niraj Verma considers the Broad Street Bullies an example of “the new resistance,” which is a movement that uses the internet to organize but takes place on city streets. 

“From what I have seen, they are like, ‘I don’t care about the rules, I can ride whatever way I want on the street,’” Verma said. “A way of asserting or reclaiming privilege on the street.” 

The Broad Street Bullies used to be the name of a hockey team who played “really rough” and “mean,” and used any method possible to win, according to Verma. 

“In that way this label is almost like, ‘we are tough guys and this is what we do,’” Verma said.

Verma said he is curious to see if it evolves to be a social movement and if it could develop into something else if it becomes a traffic and law enforcement issue. 

 “When I say a social movement, that means it will change the culture,” Verma said. “I think that’s their hope, but is this the method to do this?”

When comparing the Broad Street Bullies to Richmond hosting the 2015 UCI Road World Championships, Verma said he thinks the Broad Street Bullies will have more “success” in bringing attention to biking because it’s a “low-cost, self energized” movement. 

“I have seen them riding, they are like ‘this is what we do. Your rules were not made equitably and were made to privilege cars and we will not buy into that,’” Verma said. “That is why I think it is quite reasonable to not think of it just as a leisure activity but as a protest.”

Editor’s note: In a previous version of this article, Masha Timina’s pronouns were wrong. Timina uses they/them pronouns.