Critical Mass — March 2007
This was my second Critical Mass ride. The first was in July 2006, a month after illegal arrests on the June 2006 ride. July 2006 was a huge ride with hundreds of riders (maybe 500) and a supportive police escort. I knew that one wasn’t typical so I thought I’d go again.
For years I’ve been anti-CM without having gone on a ride. In July I learned that the rides are tons of fun. Friday’s ride was great fun too. It’s a massive celebration of bikes and bike culture. All types of cyclists come out. My favorites are the ones who do something extra to their bikes for the event:
Sebastian was pulled 15 miles or so in this trailer and provided refreshments to those in need.
Human powered music on a human powered ride. Another group brought out a sound system and hauled it on a trailer behind a tandem.
The celebration is great and bigger than the ride itself. We did ride (loop around downtown, Elliot/15th out to Ballard, ending at Gasworks), but the route isn’t what was important. I think that the public is startled, amused, and generally sees fun when they see a huge collection of folks riding down the road, playing music, talking, and having a good time on bikes.
I’m not as keen on the traffic blocking aspects.I don’t think it helps with the message that I want to send (bikes are fun and practical means of transportation) when CM blocks intersections and prevents other forms of traffic from getting through. I like the idea of a mass and don’t like seeing it break up, but I also like traffic controls and don’t want to send the message that cyclists should ignore them. Part of me would love to see a different type of CM where traffic laws are obeyed and the group naturallybreaks up and rejoins at different places around the city. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn’t. CM is well established and I like most of what it is about. I’m going to embrace those aspects.
I’ll be there next month for the party. I hope to see you there too.
I”m soooo gonna make the next one. Skip out of work @ 4:30 and hit the good ol” 545.
In San Francisco, apparently there’’s a (new?) ride called “Critical Manners”…
from http://www.sfbike.org/?chain
Critical Manners: a revolutionary act of courtesy. Come put the nice back in the bike world with critical manners! A helmet-wearing, bell-ringing, blinkie-sportin” good time for you and all your bike friends. Practice synchronized signaling, single file riding, stopping at stop signs and NOT blowing red lights. Critical Manners will brake for pedestrians, trolleys, and even the occasional SUV. If you”ve ridden in Critical Mass, you know about the “testosterone brigade”. Maybe it’’s time you rode with Critical Manners. We take obedience of the law ridiculously seriously.
Hmmm.
Google “COUTEOUS Mass”
Hey, isn”t that bike shop owner, Aaron Goss riding a bike without a helmet! And a pink bike? Something must be wrong with him!
I think that Seattle’’s CM is friendly enough that splintering off a Critical Manners or Courteous Mass would be unnecessary at this point. If things go south it is definately something to keep in mind.
I”ll be there on the next ride Mark and Aaron.
We”ve tried rides where we just accept getting split up, and try to rejoin. I doesn”t work – inevitably we get two or more groups on the same road, and the one behind ftries to filter through stopped cars to join up (which is legal here, as long as the cars are stopped). Or we get cars driving into the micro-mass of 20 cyclists. Either way, it quickly stops being a mass and becomes a mess. The PTB have also expressed disapproval, as it makes their traffic control efforts much harder. But for us, just reducing the chance of a serious attack by a motorist means we greatly prefer to stay in a single bunch.
We”ve also tried stopping just past the intersection to wait, but of course motorists turning the corner then struggle to work out what to do – even if we try to wait at the side of the road, just driving past seems to be a rare strategy. This also makes for a very slow Mass, and the cops (when they”re riding with us) have *no* patience for this one – we get told to continue through red lights. Quite emphatically at times.