Hey everyone, I was curious as to what people thought of this event that takes place the last friday of every month in cities across the world?
I did do a search and noticed that there was a thread about the cost of policing them but since thats another topic (even though the thread turned into a critical mass debate) I figured I would pull people’s attention over here.
I personaly think that they are pretty fun, I have ridden my coker in one, and the only real negatives I can see for a good critical mass ride (I say good because I agree that there are people out there who will try and turn these into a militant event to intentionaly piss people off), is that since some people don’t know about them they can get stuck behind them in traffic.
I rode in it, and will probably continue to ride in them because I really enjoy riding with a large group of people who really enjoy riding their bikes and the like. I also enjoyed being able to ride through downtown and take in all the sites and sounds and such of downtown on my unicycle, in the streets, safely. I have ridden on the roads many times but usualy I stick to the sidewalks because dodging pedestrians on my coker for some reason seems more safe than riding the road. One thing that I hadn’t thought of before the ride was that I felt very free when on the roads. This sense of freedom I have only felt once before and it is amazing, the feeling that what you are doing is alot of fun, something you can’t do very often, and that you can do it without hurting people or getting in trouble.
Another issue that is coming up with Critical Masses across the world is that there is an increased police presence at these events, I have watched the documentary about the police action taken against Critical Massers in NYC, and I have read some articles about it, frankly I find it pretty appauling that someone feels so threatened by this event. Last month there was apparently a police escort the whole time for the Ottawa Critical Mass, but I guess they realised how pointless it was to escort us and this month there were no police to be seen.
So what do people think of the Critical Mass, and even more importantly why?
Have you ever ridden in one? What did you think about it?
good intentions, good ideas, (from what i’ve read) poor policing in NYC, and arrests/impounds mar what should be the bicycle positive events that raise awareness that these are designed to be. never ridden in one(we don’t really have cities like that or enogh cyclists in iowa.
Speaking as an outsider to Critical Mass rides, I don’t think I ever would have heard of them if I weren’t a cyclist. They’ve been going on for many years now, but I’d be curious to hear if there has been any impact as a result. Any known change in driver attitudes toward cyclists (in those cities)? Any changes in laws?
Outside of all that, it seems more like a fun activity for cyclists than a mechanism of change, but as I said, I don’t hear much about them, and I’m pretty sure we don’t have them in my local city of Sacramento.
I havn’t heard of any changes in our city. I don’t really think its truly about change. If it were it would be at a time where it could cause more disruption and more people would hear about it. Right now its done on a friday evening which means it effects very few people, and usualy probably just the same people.
In Ottawa its only about 40 people that do it and unless you happen to be downtown around that time and talk to someone in it or look up critical mass Ottawa on the net then you probably won’t hear much about it. I hadn’t heard about it before in Ottawa until a couple of days before it where I stumbled upon a blog describing it.
I’ve cokered in the Los Angeles one a couple of times. It’s fun to ride on the streets and not have to worry so much about cars. Politically, who knows.
One of the times I rode I was interviewed by Darryl Hannah (you know from Splash) for her video podcast.
Hah sweet thats awesome, I was actualy interviewed aswell for the University radio station though (probably a bit smaller audience but still cool for me).
yeah there’s one in oxford an I’d consider riding, but I’m really not sure about their message, my friend cokered one in birmingham and from his description it was a bit militant and aggresive. The simple solution is just to go riding in your local city late at night (say 1 am), I guess Oxford is quite sleepy compared to most cities but by that time it’s dead in terms of traffic and you can rule the roads. The same applies early on weekend (like around 8am). I used to ride giraffe around the city late at night, never had any problems with traffic.
They do one here in my town as well. I’ve not yet ridden with them but I’d like to. The one thing that I’ve noticed is that it REALLY pisses some people off. I’ve seen some extremely aggitated drivers who really seem to feel that those d@mn bicyclists don’t have any right to take up their road. I don’t particularly like pissing anyone off but at the same time I believe strongly that bicycles are an important part of the solution to problems like traffic congestion and pollution. Our state laws also very specifically recognize bicycles as legimate vehicles for use on all roadways (except urban, controlled access interstate highways). I think it’s great that these cyclists get out there for the purpose of raising awareness of bikes.
I think it’s an incredibly childish thing to do and almost makes me ashamed to be a cyclist
All it does is pisses everybody off by blocking the roads and causes even more anti-cyclist feelings. Of course it’s a good idea to encourage more people to ride bikes, but not all in the same place at the same time
It’s just the sort of thing that’ll end up causing laws to be passed that make it illegal to cycle on the road (or at least, be compelled to use poorly designed, dangerous cycle paths where they exist).
This is an unfortunate consequence of the purpose of Critical Mass, to block traffic during a peak time of the day. The idea is to get in front of cars with so many bikes that they can’t get around them, thus raising awareness of cyclists’ rights to use the roads. The problem is, right to use is not the same as right to block, hog, or otherwise impede faster traffic. So far, I don’t see that it’s working, though again I have never participated in one.
I have to think it might be more constructive to raise peoples’ awareness by putting lots of bikes on the road without blocking traffic. Like taking up a single lane, or just being scattered all over a certain section of the downtown area. Then, the riders who are thoughtful enough to notice will see how bikes and cars can interact safely and easily, just as long as they’re looking out for each other.
Laws yes. Drivers? Not necessarily. Espeically the ones who get pissed off by Critical Mass. Actually, some of those drivers might also be cyclists, with legitimate needs to get somewhere at that time. Increasing driver awareness is always a good thing. We hand drivers licenses to kids in this country with so little training it’s scary. Some state’s (or county’s) driving tests are so easy or unrealistic they shouldn’t even be called tests. Just a formality the state requires before they hand you that license.
There should be some form of “refresher” training for drivers, to add to their knowledge after they’ve started driving. Otherwise, people think they’re done learning the moment they have that license in their hands. Why do you think the same types of common accidents are repeated thousands of times each day? In part because people aren’t aware of just how common certain types of accident are. If they knew how common rear-enders are in stop-and-go traffic, or in slowdowns because of other accidents, they might pay more attention in those more critical situations. Instead, when most people have accidents, they tell the story as if that type of event has never occurred before.
End rant. Or maybe not end, but an idea for another JC thread…
I do agree that it probably does end up creating alot of anti cyclist feelings, but the funny thing is that cars end up doing the same thing that we do twice a day for hours at a time, whereas we do it during a quiet time once a month. I’m not trying to argue against you but I hope you can find a bit of amusement at the fact that drivers are getting pissed off about something they also cause more often than bikers.
Also the goal isn’t to be dicks, its to get a huge group of people out, the fact that we block off the roads is an unfortunate (although to me fun) side effect of the ride.
Actualy in my city and aswell as New York city it is not done at a peak time. We do it here around 6 PM, when most people are out of downtown, eating dinner, or taking the bus (we always keep the bus lanes as clear as possible), so infact very few people end up affected.
The thing that many drivers don’t think about (although I don’t really think they will end up thinking about it with this form of demonstration) is that they hog the road 90% of the time, and often impede bikes during peak hours without thinking of them. Critical mass may not be the best way to show them, but I’m sure they do notice what a pain it can be for cyclists in an urban environment. Although I suppose they don’t completely stop cyclists from getting through most of the time, just make it unsafe for us.
I agree, I think there should be alot more training with driving courses about being aware of bikes. Drivers need to be aware of the rights that cyclists have, and should be taught why they have those rights. Bikes using the road should be taught not as a hazard but as a component of driving.
Thanks everyone for keeping this thread clean so far with some good discussion.
Critical Mass is just anarchy. There is no central Critical Mass organization. There is no organization tying the individual Critical Mass groups together and working towards a greater purpose. There is no central Critical Mass organization doing lobbying and other work to make use of any awareness raised by riding in a Critical Mass. There is no central organization setting standards for the rides and the local organizations.
So what you’ve got is a bunch of disjointed groups in different cities all doing Critical Mass their own way for their own purpose with no greater goal.
Google for “critical-mass”. You find a link to critical-mass.org. The first thing on their web page is this:
There is no official organization. There are no official standards for the rides so you get the different groups doing things their own way. Some are more anarchy and protesty than others. Critical Mass isn’t the same in every city. Just because one city has a local Critical Mass full of people who aren’t assholes doesn’t mean another city doesn’t.
Critical Mass is a joke. It will gain nothing because they aren’t interested in doing the political work to make it effective. Join a local cycling group that actually does effective local and national lobbying and awareness. The local cycling groups actually work for actual solutions.
There’s an ambiguity dubbed “the paradox of rational egoism”:
In some instances, acting in your own self-interest is not in your own self-interest.
The relevant example is owning a car. Alone, it is a convienant and effective mode of transportation, but when 200,000 people in the same city come by the same rationalization, the aggregate decision nullifies those benefits.
Richmond has a noticeable counter-car culture, pseudo-radical, but not militant. I’ll see if I can’t find out more about a local critical mass event.
Here is some hubris about the Israeli military using similar philosophical lines of thought, “post-structuralism”. The true functioning of a modern organizational model depends on the ability to destroy traditional conceptualizations, in this article and in terms of critical mass, conceptual space is being fought over, deconstructed, to create a new objective reality. The material order that a critical mass challenges is also the dominant mode of urban development, the monopoly of a single service infrastructure, and ultimately class conciousness. Dominant use and mechanization are only forms of each other in terms of conceptual ownership, the semblance of power as it is expressed.
There is a freedom involved in owning a definition, creating legitmacy instead of just inheriting it…
Maybe a good question would be “what is it like to ride in a Critical Mass in your city?” or “What are your feelings on the goals and attitudes of Critical Mass riders in your area?”
Personaly at the moment I’m not trying to push it on anyone, as I really don’t think it is something that should be pushed or needs to be pushed, but I am very curious as to peoples opinions on it, experiences with it, etc.
I heard that the best “Critical Mass” event would be if all the cyclists picked the same day of the month to commute BY CAR, to show how much cycling lessens congestion.
