By Nate Seltenrich

Get Out is Petaluma Voice’s outdoors and nature column.

On the first Friday of every month, for more than five years without fail, Bruce Hagen and Pete Gang have taken their bicycles out for a long, slow spin through the streets of Petaluma.

They’re never alone – except that one time, on a dark and stormy night, when it was just the two of them, keeping the flame alive.

More often they’re joined by 15 or so fellow cyclists, with no particular destination in mind. The idea is simply to ride, together, and perhaps to serve as "emissaries for people on bikes,” as Gang once put it: roll models.

He and Hagen are certainly that, as co-founders and leaders of the all-volunteer advocacy group Safe Streets Petaluma, which now hosts the First Friday rides. But their tradition began in June 2021 as more of a social event. The rides retain that convivial character today, and many are followed, informally, by refreshments – a group beer at the Block or now Old Caz Backyard, for example.

“You may be familiar with the Critical Mass rides in San Francisco and other places,” Hagen said. “There were some roots in that, but we didn’t want it to be a protest ride, or an in-your-face kind of ride.”

Instead, he said, the idea was – and still is – “more of a fun thing.” As in: “Let’s ride around town. Let’s get together outside and see the sights.”

On another rainy evening last December, lit only by streetlamps and the festive glow of multicolored LEDs, the duo were joined by more than 100 two-wheeled revelers shouting, “Happy holidays!” and “Woohoo!” and “Come join us!” to front-porch spectators along the miles-long route through downtown Petaluma and surrounding neighborhoods. 

The annual Lighted Bike Ride is by far the most popular group ride led by Hagen and Gang via Safe Streets Petaluma, in this case in partnership with the city. In 2024, when it wasn't raining, the event drew about 400 people of all ages, and untold numbers of Bluetooth speakers blasting holiday fare and feel-good songs, along a meandering east-side route.

The monthly First Friday rides, meanwhile – including on Friday, Oct. 2, starting at 6 p.m. at Walnut Park – offer local cyclists (experienced and novice alike) a dozen more intimate opportunities to ally with copacetic folks for camaraderie, exercise, safety in numbers, and perhaps a smattering of civic education.

“If you ask anybody why they’re doing it, you might get five or six different answers,” Hagen said.

After September’s ride, one of the biggest to date with 65 participants (including four city council members) on bicycles, tricycles, and e-bikes, I did ask people why they came. And sure enough, I did get many different answers.

Petaluma residents Jennifer Reichardt and Mike Dmytrenko made their First Friday debut along with their son Finn, 2, who rode along in a trailer. Reichardt said they were motivated to join by September’s special theme, public art. “We were excited to see the new sculptures installed around town,” she said.

The 6.7-mile route starting and ending at Walnut Park had more of an agenda than most First Friday rides, visiting three new public art pieces in the city: “Shape Totem” by Mary Fuller McChesney at the Baywood Drive roundabout on McDowell Boulevard; the new bench and sculpture fragments by David Best at “River Arch” along the Lynch Creek Trail; and the “Medusa” sculpture by Fuller McChesney at City Hall. 

Also along for the art tour were Jon Zellner and his daughter Kennedy, 12, of Sebastopol. This wasn’t their first bike rodeo, as it were: they’ve been attending First Friday rides for about a year now, missing only a few. 

What brought them out originally?

“Well, I wanted to do more things with my daughter,” Jon Zellner said. “You know, more family things outside. And it’s a good thing to do. It's a good ability to have to be able to ride out in public.”

I also spoke with Amin Bains of Petaluma. She has been bringing her son Owen, 5, to First Fridays for most of 2026, after starting with last year’s holiday ride. 

“My son did it, but it was difficult,” she said. “And then we kept practicing. So when spring rolled around, we were aware of these community bike rides, and it's something I wanted to do as a family. I've been like the ringleader, putting it on our calendar.” 

In between, using skills they’ve picked up from the group, they ride wherever they can around town: to the library, the grocery store, the smoothie shop. “I feel like this biking community has given us more confidence biking around, and just finding different paths,” Bains said.

As for Hagen and Gang, who launched Safe Streets Petaluma in 2022 after being inspired by the success of the early First Friday rides, the plan is for more of the same: more engagement, more advocacy, more themed group rides, more good vibes. 

“It's fun to ride in a group,” Hagen said. “You feel safer. There's just a spirit of a little party.”

Nate Seltenrich is an editor and reporter at Petaluma Voice. He can be reached at nseltenrich@petalumavoice.org.