Don't know when they started, but it was underway last Labor Day. You'd be surprised. Between the ramp from Doremus Ave. to Lincoln Park there is not much traffic on the Sunday before Labor Day. The club has been doing the ride since the middle 90s. I have done it 10 times. I have never taken the walkways. I am usually with a group of people. We take an entire lane. Riding through the Port is the really craxy thing. I go there occasionally for business during the week. I don't like to drive my car on Corbin St. Speeding trucks everywhere. The Sunday before Labor Day it's a ghost town. You may encounter a car or two and the bus serving the prison on Doremus, but that's about it.