Traffic alert: Miami Critical Mass bike ride crosses Miami, Miami Beach neighborhoods

MIAMI – The Miami Critical Mass, a monthly cycling community event, started at 7:15 p.m. Friday in downtown Miami. Their ride will be affecting traffic in several neighborhoods in Miami and Miami Beach. It also includes sections of Biscayne Boulevard and Collins Avenue. 

Organizers warned participants that the Miami Police Department, which is busy dealing with the Ultra Music Festival crowd, will not be escorting the ride this month. Organizers asked riders to avoid altercations with motorists. 

"People ride at their own risk and assume responsibility for their own safety on and off the road," organizers wrote on the event's page. 

The ride starts and ends at Government Center, 150 NW First St. The group plans to head northbound on Northwest Second Avenue through Miami's Overtown neighborhood.  

The group will try to skip Wynwood traffic on Northwest Third and Fifth avenues. Once they arrive to Little Haiti, they will head eastbound at Northwest 54th Street, also known as State Road 944. 

The riders will turn left, northbound, on Biscayne Boulevard, and they will turn eastbound on Northeast 79th Street toward North Bay Village and North Beach. Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber wrote on Twitter that the Miami Critical Mass is not a city "sanctioned/permitted" event. 

"The Miami Beach Police Department will have officers at key intersections along the way," Gelber wrote, and he asked drivers to "plan accordingly as this will affect traffic for 3+ hours."

Once in Miami Beach, the bicycle riders will turn southbound on Collins Avenue, and they will turn left at West 41st Street to turn left again on Pine Tree Drive. 

To avoid busy South Beach, the group will ride to Dade Boulevard toward the Venetian Islands. After crossing the Venetian Causeway, the group will head westbound on Northeast 15th Street and head back to the Government Center southbound on North Miami Avenue.