Walter
October 30th, 2004, 01:14 AM
What is Critical Mass?
Critical Mass, an international event held in hundreds of cities on six continents, occurs on the last Friday of every month when bicyclists spontaneously come together to ride the ordinarily car-clogged streets of their cities. Critical Mass focuses on the rights of bicyclists and the rights of pedestrians on their own streets. It also brings attention to the deteriorating quality of life--starting with the toxic levels of air and noise pollution--that cars create for cities.
Cyclists are just as much traffic and have just as much right to be on the roads and travel at their own speed as anyone else. Moreover, cars clog up the streets all day, every day, so a lot of cyclists doing the same on a limited scale once a month cannot be a great source of complaint. Indeed, Critical Mass often finds itself held up by the traffic jam caused by motorists going about their "usual" business.
Critical Mass's aim is to make people take notice of cyclists as road users. Although some obstruction of "normal" traffic occurs, we are only seeking to raise the profile of cycling, and put cycling and transport issues on the agenda so that they will not be ignored.
I just came back from my first Critical Mass event. It was amazing. My friend guessed there were 800 cyclists, but I would definitely put the number well over a thousand. Being that Halloween is in two days half of the people were dressed in costumes.
I was riding to the event down a street and as I got closer an intersection at a time bikers were pouring out of each street and turning corners and joining me and a long line of bikers. We were gathering numbers until I turned a corner and saw a mass of bikers several blocks long across every lane of the street (both directions) waiting for the event to start. We started off and rode up this large hill and went through Chinatown. The first group of bikers to pass an intersection would instinctually stop thereby blocking the traffic and letting the hundreds of bikers go past whilst drivers waited in their vehicles for the mass to move by. At busy intersections people would yell "PEDESTRIANS!" or "LET THE BUS GO THROUGH!" and everyone would stop and let the pedestrians or city bus go through and then quickly close the gap so that no cars could squeeze by.
Once and awhile a car would honk their horn and everyone would instinctually cheer so loud the car could no longer be heard over the chorus of cheers and bike horns and bells. A mass of cyclists would swarm the honking car thereby making any hope of a get-away impossible.
Tonight's ride had a theme. The group went from unionized hotel to unionized hotel where the unionized workers have been locked out for four weeks now. The strikers have been picketing from 5:00 to 22:00 daily and at each hotel the bikers would slow and chant "LOCAL 2, LOCAL 2, LOCAL 2" and the hotel workers would cheer and shout in their megaphones "THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" again and again! Bikers would clasp hands with the workers and raise their hands above the crowd and people would cheer!
We passed nearly a dozen hotels on the ride that took us down the city's busiest streets. The ride lasted over 3 hours.
Pictures of other events (I didn't have my camera) -
A symbolic sketch of Critical Mass (http://www.monacaron.com/~mona/images/large/critical-mass.jpg)
Critical Mass in NYC on Halloween '03 (http://www.times-up.org/images/halloween2003big.jpg)
Another Critical Mass event in NYC (http://www.bikecult.com/works/events/03BSCMpas4.JPG)
Critical Mass in Syndey, Australia (http://www.inhouse.com.au/writings/cm2001_11/21_millerst.jpg)
Critical Mass in San Francisco '96 (http://www.scorcher.org/cmhistory/pix/cmhoward.jpg)
Critical Mass, an international event held in hundreds of cities on six continents, occurs on the last Friday of every month when bicyclists spontaneously come together to ride the ordinarily car-clogged streets of their cities. Critical Mass focuses on the rights of bicyclists and the rights of pedestrians on their own streets. It also brings attention to the deteriorating quality of life--starting with the toxic levels of air and noise pollution--that cars create for cities.
Cyclists are just as much traffic and have just as much right to be on the roads and travel at their own speed as anyone else. Moreover, cars clog up the streets all day, every day, so a lot of cyclists doing the same on a limited scale once a month cannot be a great source of complaint. Indeed, Critical Mass often finds itself held up by the traffic jam caused by motorists going about their "usual" business.
Critical Mass's aim is to make people take notice of cyclists as road users. Although some obstruction of "normal" traffic occurs, we are only seeking to raise the profile of cycling, and put cycling and transport issues on the agenda so that they will not be ignored.
I just came back from my first Critical Mass event. It was amazing. My friend guessed there were 800 cyclists, but I would definitely put the number well over a thousand. Being that Halloween is in two days half of the people were dressed in costumes.
I was riding to the event down a street and as I got closer an intersection at a time bikers were pouring out of each street and turning corners and joining me and a long line of bikers. We were gathering numbers until I turned a corner and saw a mass of bikers several blocks long across every lane of the street (both directions) waiting for the event to start. We started off and rode up this large hill and went through Chinatown. The first group of bikers to pass an intersection would instinctually stop thereby blocking the traffic and letting the hundreds of bikers go past whilst drivers waited in their vehicles for the mass to move by. At busy intersections people would yell "PEDESTRIANS!" or "LET THE BUS GO THROUGH!" and everyone would stop and let the pedestrians or city bus go through and then quickly close the gap so that no cars could squeeze by.
Once and awhile a car would honk their horn and everyone would instinctually cheer so loud the car could no longer be heard over the chorus of cheers and bike horns and bells. A mass of cyclists would swarm the honking car thereby making any hope of a get-away impossible.
Tonight's ride had a theme. The group went from unionized hotel to unionized hotel where the unionized workers have been locked out for four weeks now. The strikers have been picketing from 5:00 to 22:00 daily and at each hotel the bikers would slow and chant "LOCAL 2, LOCAL 2, LOCAL 2" and the hotel workers would cheer and shout in their megaphones "THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" again and again! Bikers would clasp hands with the workers and raise their hands above the crowd and people would cheer!
We passed nearly a dozen hotels on the ride that took us down the city's busiest streets. The ride lasted over 3 hours.
Pictures of other events (I didn't have my camera) -
A symbolic sketch of Critical Mass (http://www.monacaron.com/~mona/images/large/critical-mass.jpg)
Critical Mass in NYC on Halloween '03 (http://www.times-up.org/images/halloween2003big.jpg)
Another Critical Mass event in NYC (http://www.bikecult.com/works/events/03BSCMpas4.JPG)
Critical Mass in Syndey, Australia (http://www.inhouse.com.au/writings/cm2001_11/21_millerst.jpg)
Critical Mass in San Francisco '96 (http://www.scorcher.org/cmhistory/pix/cmhoward.jpg)