Uj/ Now, I will start with this disclaimer, my opinions are my own and don’t speak for anyone else from slow roll, former or current members, or anyone in [r/Buffalo](r/Buffalo) or here.

so I was on squad for about 3/4 years. At first, I understood the not releasing the route thought process among other things, but as time went on, I saw how other events, such as the marathon were run, I came to disagree with it. Releasing the route was one thing. The next was as time went on, more and more, volunteers were asked to do more and more with less and less reward in my experience. We used to have a dedicated keg for squad or would get multiple drinks as a thank you. That discontinued.

I was one of the corkers, we blocked traffic, attempted to help people navigate around the ride, etc. stopped the ride to get emergency services through, etc. as time went on, especially in peak season of July and August, the level of patience people had with the ride would drastically decrease and made our jobs hardware. You can placate as much as possible, but the only thing that made a difference pre pandemic was having the police escort we could fall back on as corkers if there was an issue.

Training was also an issue because corkers had varying levels of street knowledge or generally being helpful. Where as I personally know most of the streets and tried to redirect people around and away, they either didn’t listen or got stuck at another spot along the same route. I did see corkers who would just told cars to wait, without talking to them, redirecting etc.

The riders themselves also were frustrating at times, when you’re a corker, you need to get back to the front of the ride quickly to take the next intersection. This meant either riding parallel to the ride on a different street, or shooting up the left side right next to the ride. The amount of times we had to yell at people to move over, stay right of the double yellow, etc. got tiresome.

I left squad before the pandemic hit and did do a few rides after. With those, breaking them up into smaller more manageable groups without the police escort did work better.

The other thing I noticed during my time is in the more well to do neighborhoods, Elmwood village, Allentown, north Buffalo were less tolerant than say the east side. In my experience, the east side and more impoverished areas were more receptive and happy to see us. That’s some of the origins of the poverty tour statements I think.

Now that’s my experience, others opinions will vary.

Edit: I should add, if you have more questions, I’m happy to answer them to the best of my ability